Solution Focused Therapy 101

Solution Focused Therapy 101 Solution Focused Therapy 101 Solution Focused Therapy is about being brief and focusing on solutions, rather than on problems. AssumptionsEvery client is unique. Clients have the inherent strengths and resources to help them selves.Nothing is all negative. There is no such thing as resistance. You cannot change clients, they can only change thems e lves.Solution Focused Therapy goes slowly. There is no cause and effect. Solutions do not necessarily have anything to do with th e problem.Change is constant and inevitable; a small change can lead to bigger changes. One can't change the past so one should concentrate on the f uture.Solution Focused Therapy 101 Technique #1 The Miracle Question -“I have a strange, perhaps unusual question, a question that takes some imagination ... Suppose . . . After we finish here, you go home tonight, watch TV, do your usual chores, etc., and then go to bed and to sleep . . . And, while you are sleeping, a miracle happens . . . And, the problems that brought you here are solved, just like that! . . . But, this happens while you are sleeping, so you cannot know that it has happened.” “Once you wake up in the morning, a) how will you go about discovering that this miracle has happened to you?” OR, b) “how will your best friend know that this miracle happened to you?”Solution Focused Therapy 101 Technique #2 Scaling Question -“Let’s say that “10” stands for how things are the day after the miracle and “0” stands for how things were when you made the phone call arranging this first session: Where are things now between “0” and “10”?” Solution Focused Therapy 101 Technique #3 Finding Exceptions to the Problem -How come it is _____ instead of "0"? Solution Focused Therapy 101 Technique #4 What needs to happen to take a small step up the scale?Solution Focused Therapy 101 Technique #5 (future sessions) What is better? How is it better? Scale again... What needs to continue to happen?