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Concept
Solution-focused brief therapy
Summary
Solution-focused (brief) therapy (SFBT) is a goal-directed collaborative approach to psychotherapeutic change that is conducted through direct observation of clients' responses to a series of precisely constructed questions. Based upon social constructivist thinking and Wittgensteinian philosophy, SFBT focuses on addressing what clients want to achieve without exploring the history and provenance of problem(s). SF therapy sessions typically focus on the present and future, focusing on the past only to the degree necessary for communicating empathy and accurate understanding of the client's concerns.
SFBT is future-oriented and goal-oriented interviewing technique that helps clients "build solutions." Elliot Connie defines solution building as "a collaborative language process between the client(s) and the therapist that develops a detailed description of the client(s)' preferred future/goals and identifies exceptions and past successes". By doing so, SFBT focuses on clients' strengths and resilience.
The solution-focused brief therapy approach grew from the work of American social workers Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg, and their team at the Milwaukee Brief Family Therapy Center (BFTC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A private training and therapy institute, BFTC was started by dissatisfied former staff members from a Milwaukee agency who were interested in exploring brief therapy approaches then being developed at the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, California. The initial group included married partners, Steve de Shazer, Insoo Berg, Jim Derks, Elam Nunnally, Judith Tietyen, Don Norman, Marilyn La Court and Eve Lipchik. Their students included John Walter, Jane Peller, Michele Weiner-Davis and Yvonne Dolan. Steve de Shazer and Berg, primary developers of the approach, co-authored an update of SFBT in 2007, shortly before their deaths. SFBT evolved from the Brief Therapy that was practiced at MRI.
The solution-focused approach was developed inductively rather than deductively; Berg, de Shazer and their team spent thousands of hours carefully observing live and recorded therapy sessions.
Official source
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