Solution Focused Brief Therapy

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a goal-directed form of psychotherapy that focuses on coming up with solutions alongside clients in relation to their challenges. It is a short-term evidence-based therapeutic approach. SFBT is one of the leading schools of brief therapy and branched out from the field of family therapy in the 1980s. It is currently applied in individual, couples and family therapy and can be used in multiple contexts ranging from normal stressors to high-impact life events. However, SFBT is not typically used to treat specific mental disorders such as schizophrenia or major depressive disorders.

SFBT incorporates positive psychology principles, therefore eliciting positive emotions in clients by being goal-focused and future-oriented, encouraging clients to formulate, be motivated, achieve and sustain desired behavioural change.

SFBT typically involves a therapist getting a clear idea of how the client’s life would change if the challenge would resolve. Then the therapist and client would draw on the client’s existing resources, such as life experiences, to construct together a practical and sustainable solution that client is able to readily implement. This could mean identifying previous times in which a client successfully resolved previous challenges or “exceptions” where clients were not actively affected by the challenges. Therapists would guide clients to formulate a solution based on what sets the “exceptions” apart from other instances where the clients are affected by the challenges. Therapists could do so by asking questions such as coping questions: “How do you manage, in the face of such difficulty, to fulfil your daily obligations?”.  This helps to identify how clients have been coping with their problems previously. Another common kind of question used is the miracle question types, where therapists encourage clients to imagine a future in which their challenges no longer affect their lives.

The strengths of SFBT lies in that it is practical, goal-driven and can be employed in short-term therapy. It is also rooted in the present. The goal of SFBT is to find and implement a solution to clients’ challenges in as minimal time as possible. SFBT is growing in popularity, and is one of the leading schools of psychotherapy in the world.