SOLUTION FOCUSED BRIEF THERAPY (SFBT)
What is Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)?
Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) was developed in the USA in the 1980s by Steve de Shazer and his wife, Insoo Kim Berg, in collaboration with a team of experts. The basic point of departure of the therapy is to focus on a client’s strengths, resources, skills and successes instead of simply focusing on his problems.
According to research, problems become more overwhelming in a client’s thinking when therapy focuses mainly on his or her problems. The client begins to rely too heavily on the therapist’s insight and support to solve his problems and he does not develop the necessary skills to live his life to the full.
My clients are often surprised when they start feeling more hopeful in the space of a few sessions and recover the ability to take control of their own lives. Clients expect therapy to take months but with SFBT this is often not the case.
What can you expect from SFBT?
*The therapist is “respectfully curious” and asks questions as part of the discussion. The questions will help you to discover the direction in which you should be going so that you can reach your destination (or goal). Questions are therefore the most important aspect of this therapy and not the answers supplied by the therapist. The most important premise is that the client has all the answers required to reach a solution – only one sometimes forgets that one knows that one knows!
You may be thinking: “But I am paying you to do the work! And now you are telling me that I have to find the solutions myself!" Well, I am going to work hard along with you. But it’s your life and you know better what will work best for you than anybody else does. In this therapy you are regarded as the expert on your own life and as your therapist I need to respect that.
By asking the right questions, by getting you to think about what is going to work for you, I am going to accompany you to formulate the direction you should be going and then to work out practical means of achieving your goal.
*But what is the purpose of the two pairs of trainers at the top of the page? Well, this is one of the fascinating aspects of SFBT (not only fascinating but also very logical): a therapist should only expect a client to take small steps. When people take big steps (try to make big changes within a short period) their dreams are often shattered. On the other hand the effect of small steps can be surprising in the long run.
If you are willing to give this very practical and constructive therapy a chance, you may well be surprised at the results! Yes, your therapist is not going to focus mainly on the problem and you may find this strange at first (Aren’t therapists supposed to analyze our problems and sort them out?) But consider that it may be necessary for people to take these small steps and try something “different” so that they can’t say they have tried “everything” and “nothing” helped.
Clients who are best suited to brief therapy fall into the following categories:
People who do not respond well to a brief therapy:
You may be asking yourself: Am I a “brief therapy kind of person”?
It is difficult to answer that question. If you fall into group 1 (clients suitable for short-term therapy), it may be worthwhile to commit yourself to a single session and see what happens. I know one thing for certain: after that first session you are going to have a good deal to think about and begin to apply.
“People already have the skills to solve their problems but have lost sight of these abilities because their problems loom so large that their strengths are crowded out of the picture. Solution focused therapy is fundamentally about helping the client shift their language from talking about problems to talking about solutions.” Insoo Kim Berg
Cizelle Louw
Clinical Psychologist Pretoria
***
‘n Uitstekende korttermyn terapie wat in kombinasie met Brainworking Recursive Therapy gebruik kan word. Jy sal met hierdie terapie aangemoedig word om met klein treetjies vorentoe te beweeg, want babysteps kan uiteindelik ‘n groot, standhoudende verskil maak.
Cizelle Louw
Kliniese Sielkundige in Pretoria vir Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) was developed in the USA in the 1980s by Steve de Shazer and his wife, Insoo Kim Berg, in collaboration with a team of experts. The basic point of departure of the therapy is to focus on a client’s strengths, resources, skills and successes instead of simply focusing on his problems.
According to research, problems become more overwhelming in a client’s thinking when therapy focuses mainly on his or her problems. The client begins to rely too heavily on the therapist’s insight and support to solve his problems and he does not develop the necessary skills to live his life to the full.
My clients are often surprised when they start feeling more hopeful in the space of a few sessions and recover the ability to take control of their own lives. Clients expect therapy to take months but with SFBT this is often not the case.
What can you expect from SFBT?
*The therapist is “respectfully curious” and asks questions as part of the discussion. The questions will help you to discover the direction in which you should be going so that you can reach your destination (or goal). Questions are therefore the most important aspect of this therapy and not the answers supplied by the therapist. The most important premise is that the client has all the answers required to reach a solution – only one sometimes forgets that one knows that one knows!
You may be thinking: “But I am paying you to do the work! And now you are telling me that I have to find the solutions myself!" Well, I am going to work hard along with you. But it’s your life and you know better what will work best for you than anybody else does. In this therapy you are regarded as the expert on your own life and as your therapist I need to respect that.
By asking the right questions, by getting you to think about what is going to work for you, I am going to accompany you to formulate the direction you should be going and then to work out practical means of achieving your goal.
*But what is the purpose of the two pairs of trainers at the top of the page? Well, this is one of the fascinating aspects of SFBT (not only fascinating but also very logical): a therapist should only expect a client to take small steps. When people take big steps (try to make big changes within a short period) their dreams are often shattered. On the other hand the effect of small steps can be surprising in the long run.
If you are willing to give this very practical and constructive therapy a chance, you may well be surprised at the results! Yes, your therapist is not going to focus mainly on the problem and you may find this strange at first (Aren’t therapists supposed to analyze our problems and sort them out?) But consider that it may be necessary for people to take these small steps and try something “different” so that they can’t say they have tried “everything” and “nothing” helped.
Clients who are best suited to brief therapy fall into the following categories:
- People who want to solve a specific problem.
- People who want to know: “Am I normal if I or one of my loved ones have certain feelings or act in a certain way?”
- People who are open (with the support of the therapist) to identifying the following: solutions and how they were able to find solutions successfully in the past.
- People who feel that they have got “stuck” in certain feelings (anger, guilt, heartache, etc) in respect of previous events and who have had enough and want to move on.
- People with problems to which there is really no solution – here the client could be helped to replace his obsession with trying to solve the problem with something more meaningful so that he or she could enjoy life again.
- People with an “adjustment disorder” respond best to brief therapy. This means that the client has developed an emotional or behavioural symptom in response to an identifiable stressor. The stressor is usually something that has happened within the family, such as a failed romantic relationship, a death, marital problems, remarriage, a new baby, problems at work or at school.
People who do not respond well to a brief therapy:
- People who require in-patient psychiatric treatment, especially where there may be a risk of suicide. Clients with psychoses, that is people who are subject to hallucinations and lose contact with reality. People who abuse substances or alcohol also fall into this category.
- People suffering from a condition with a strong genetic, biological and chemical component such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
- People with a pronounced neurological problem or brain damage (dementia, Alzheimer’s etc)
- People who request long-term therapy from the start, especially people who have prepared themselves to sort out their life history and personal identity.
You may be asking yourself: Am I a “brief therapy kind of person”?
It is difficult to answer that question. If you fall into group 1 (clients suitable for short-term therapy), it may be worthwhile to commit yourself to a single session and see what happens. I know one thing for certain: after that first session you are going to have a good deal to think about and begin to apply.
“People already have the skills to solve their problems but have lost sight of these abilities because their problems loom so large that their strengths are crowded out of the picture. Solution focused therapy is fundamentally about helping the client shift their language from talking about problems to talking about solutions.” Insoo Kim Berg
Cizelle Louw
Clinical Psychologist Pretoria
***
‘n Uitstekende korttermyn terapie wat in kombinasie met Brainworking Recursive Therapy gebruik kan word. Jy sal met hierdie terapie aangemoedig word om met klein treetjies vorentoe te beweeg, want babysteps kan uiteindelik ‘n groot, standhoudende verskil maak.
Cizelle Louw
Kliniese Sielkundige in Pretoria vir Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
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