1. Solution Focused Brief Therapy Robin Akdeniz, MSW

2. Problem Solving  Medical Model: diagnosis and treatment  Therapeutic relationship  Nature of problem and intervention  Interaction between clinicians and clients RESULT The interaction focuses on problems.

3. New Perspective  30 years ago  Problem-focused model in counseling  Different from puzzle solving (Problem: disease, Solution: cure) Problems in counseling do not have a single correct solution.

4. Mission of helping professions: To empower clients to live more productive and satisfying lives.

5. The Strength’s Perspective We cannot know the “upper limits of a person’s capacity to grow and change”. Saleebey (2007)

6. Dynamic Core of the Strengths- Based Approach  C = capacities, competencies, character  P = promise and possibility  R = resources, resilience, reserves “What are the factors in life and in helping that make things go well?” (Saleebey)

7. Basic Assumptions 1. All persons possess strengths that can be marshaled to improve quality of life. 2. Consistent emphasis on strengths increases motivation. 3. Discovering strengths requires process of cooperative exploration. 4. Focus on strengths: turns us away from judging/blaming and toward discovering how clients were able to survive. 5. All environments, even those that are bleak, contain resources.

8. So what is of interest to us is how people have taken steps, summoned up resources, and coped. People are always working on their situations, even if just deciding for the moment to be resigned. As helpers, we must tap into that work, elucidate it, find and build on its promise. (Saleebey, 2007, p. 285)

9. Elements of Strengths Based Practice (1) Believe the client and believe in the client. (2) Affirm and show interest in the client’s view of things. (3) Focusing on the dreams, hopes, and visions of people encourages them to start to think about possibilities, what might be and how it might come about. (4) Begin making an accounting of the assets, resources, reserves, and capacities within both client and environment. (5) Believe forces exist for self-healing, self-righting, and wisdom within person/family, begin to search for them, and use them to achieve goals on path to the dream.

10. Paolo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed There is no change without the dream, as there is no dream without hope. (1996, p. 91)

11. Development of SFBT  Brief, effective and cost-effective  Used all over the world  Founders: Steve De Shazer (1985) and Insoo Kim Berg (1994) Brief Family Therapy Center, Milwaukee, WI

12. Common Factors of Change  Client/Therapeutic Factors 40%  Alliance Factors 30%  Expectancy, hope, allegiance 15%  Model or technique factors 15% SFT uses all of these factors

13. Basic Assumption in SFT “…is that individuals possess the necessary resources to resolve their own problems”.

14. Other Assumptions:  Cause of problem not required step  Must know where client wants to arrive  Always times client is solution building  Problems do not = underlying pathology  Smallest of changes can set solution in motion  Therapist’s task: to discover how clients are able to cooperate with therapy

15. So…how does it work?  Describing problem  “How can we be useful to you?”  Some details  No causes  Listen and respect  Think how to turn conversation toward next step

16.  Developing Well-Formed Goals  What will be different in their lives when their problems are solved?

17.  Exploring for Exceptions  Times in client’s lives when problems didn’t happen or were less severe  “How did you do that?”

18. End of Session Feedback  Compliments: what they are already doing that is useful in solving problems  Suggestions: Identify what they can observe or do to further solve problems  Feedback: What they need to do more of and do differently to meet goals

19. Evaluating Client Progress  Scaling: 0-10

20. The Client as Expert  Ask them what they would like to see changed in their lives  Interview clients: what will be different in their lives when their problems are solved? (listen for their goals)  Ask them about their perceptions of exceptions to their problems (strengths)

21. The Clinician We are not experts in assessing their problems and intervening. We strive to be expert at exploring their frames of reference and identifying the perceptions that they can use to create more satisfying lives.

22. Main Interventions  Stance of the clinician: positive, respectful, hopeful  Look for previous solutions  Look for exceptions  Use of questions: primary intervention tool -no interpretations -rarely challenge or confront -present and future-oriented; not past -Focus: what client wants to happen -promote expectations (“when”, not “if”)

23. Interventions continued  Complimenting: validate what client is already doing well; what is working.  Acknowledge difficulty of problems  “Gentle nudging to do more of what is working” (Tepper et al, p. 5)

24. Specific Tools  Pre-session change: initial interview (2/3 +)  Miracle question: begin goal formulation -Envision time: problems gone -Goals: behavioral, manageable, measureable “How can you become what you cannot imagine?” (Hooks, 2000, p. 70)

25. More Tools  Scaling questions  Coping questions  Taking break toward end of session  Reconvening for feedback  Feedback: compliments, bridge, suggestions (observational/behavioral)

26. The Not-Knowing Approach  No assumptions  Listen  Try to understand what client says and what it means  Try not to be influenced by your frame of reference  Do more of what previously worked

27. Goal of Therapy  To help client reach goal they establish for themselves that reflects a vision of a desired future where the problem no longer exists.

28. What’s the Difference? Solution-Focused  Client’s perception of desired future  Client as expert  Belief that solutions exist within client’s repertoire  Client leads Problem-Oriented  Focus on past problems  Clinician as expert  Solutions are taught to client  Clinician leads

29. References Corcoran, J., & Pillai, V. (2009). A review of the research on solution-focused therapy. British Journal of Social Work, 39, 234-242. Trepper, T. S., McCollum, E. E., De Jong, P., Korman, H., Gingerich, W. & Franklin, C. Solution focused therapy treatment manual for working with individuals, 1-16. Saleebey, D. (2000) Power in the people: Strengths and hope. Advances in Social Work, 1(2), 127-136. DeJong, P., & Berg, I. K. (2008). Interviewing for Solutions, (3 rd Ed.). Brooks/Cole: CA.