1. Solution Focused Therapy
Leslie Hollenbeck
Meggen Sixbey
Steve de Shazer
Insoo Kim Berg

2. What is Solution Focused Therapy?
A therapy that produces rapid change
A therapy that is reported to have a higher degree of client satisfaction
A therapy that is extremely effective in very little time
                                  

3. Other Practitioners Like it Because…
It is easy to understand and to apply
The cost per client is comparatively lower, attracting HMO’s

4. History
SFBT grew out of the Mental Research Institute’s (MRI) model of Strategic Therapy
Steve de Shazer – main theory developer

5. Similarities with the Strategic Model
Emphasis on brevity
Clear behavioral goals
Extensive use of reframing

6. Differences Between SFBT and Strategic Theory
Client truly wants to change
Resistance is only a mis-match between the therapist’s suggestion and the client’s worldview
Client is expert, therapist is a collaborative partner
SFBT is straightforward and easy to understand
Strategic
Client’s problems serve them a purpose
Client is “resistant” to change
Therapist is expert/manipulator
Strategic model is complex, intellectual, and intimidating

7. Responding to the Issues of…

8. Sociocultural, Demographic and Lifestyle Diversity Issues
A true solution focused therapist would claim that SFBT is a completely unbiased model of therapy
The client’s worldview is completely valid and meaningful
Little to no focus on the past, history or context

9. The Question of Cosmology
Future-focused, not past
Offers little to the discourse on a person’s context within a system of others
“Languaging” is highly emphasized – people use language to create their own social contexts and realities

10. The Question of Aesthetics
Emphasis on simplicity, obviousness and common sense
Searching for “underlying issues” is a no-no!

11. The Question of Relationship
Collaborative
Partnership
Horizontal, not hierarchical
Importance of Fit

12. The Question of Ethics
“Is there a choice to be made? Can we continue to diagnose if, or when, we know different and maybe faster and simpler ways to find out what can be helpful?” H. Korman
The diagnosis trap

13. The Question of Cognition/Knowledge/Truth
SFBT believes that individuals and their families have the knowledge to build their own solutions
Cognitions vs. Emotions
Mediated through language

14. The Question of Motive/Motivation
Initial distress
Client already has tools for success and has been successful and productive in the past
Compliments as a therapeutic tool that help motivate people and build solutions
Quick effectiveness

15. The Question of Expressiveness
Others feel emotions deserve a more central role
Contend that using “language games: relegates the therapist to an expert/manipulator
HOT TOPIC…
Traditionally emotions linked to cognitions/behavior
Traditional emphasis on behavior when emotion is experienced
Emotion is created through “language games.” Thus, emotion can be impacted by a change in language, and therefore a change of meaning

16. The Question of change
Clearly defined goals elicit the expectation for change
Emphasis on reframing and creating new meanings
Small changes naturally lead to larger change

17. The Question of Participation
“A tap on the shoulder”
Collaborative Partnership – co-constructing solutions for a preferred future
Using language to focus attention to client’s strengths and past successes while incorporating the client’s own language and ideas

18. The Question of First Cause
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it
If it works do more of it
If it doesn’t work don’t do it again

19. References