Solution-Focused Therapy

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), also called Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) was
developed by Steve de Shazer (1940-2005). As the name suggests, SFBT is future-focused,
goal-directed, and focuses on solutions, rather than on the problems that brought clients to
seek therapy.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a short-term goal-focused evidence-based
therapeutic approach, which incorporates positive psychology principles and practices, and
which helps clients change by constructing solutions rather than focusing on problems. In the
most basic sense, SFBT is a hope friendly, positive emotion eliciting, future-oriented vehicle
for formulating, motivating, achieving, and sustaining desired behavioral change.
Solution-Focused practitioners develop solutions by first generating a detailed description of
how the client’s life will be different when the problem is gone or their situation improved to
a degree satisfactory to the client. Therapist and client then carefully search through the
client’s life experience and behavioral repertoire to discover the necessary resources needed
to co-construct a practical and sustainable solution that the client can readily implement.
Typically this process involves identifying and exploring previous “exceptions,” e.g. times
when the client has successfully coped with or addressed previous difficulties and challenges.
In an inherently respectful and practical interview process, SF therapists and their clients
consistently collaborate in identifying goals reflective of clients’ best hopes and developing
satisfying solutions.
Key Concepts and Tools
The following techniques and questions help clarify solutions and the means of achieving
them.
Goal Development Questions
SF therapists begin a first session with one or more goal development question. These might
include asking clients to describe their best hope for what will be different as a result of
coming to therapy, what needs to happen as a result of coming in so that afterwards the client
(and/or a person who cares about them) will be able to look back and think that it had been a
good idea to come, or what needs to happen so that clients would be able to say afterwards
that coming was not a waste of their time.
Once a goal has been identified, SF therapists ask their clients questions designed to generate
a detailed description of what the client’s life will be like when the goal has been achieved. In
some cases, this may include the SF Miracle Question (see below). Once a detailed
description has been developed of how the client’s life will be different after the goal has
been achieved, the therapist and client begin searching through the client’s life experiences
and behavioral repertoire for exceptions, e.g. times when in at least some parts of the goal
have already happened.
Looking for previous solutions
SF therapists have learned that most people have previously solved many, many problems
and may likely have some ideas of how to solve the current problem. To help clients discover
these potential solution ingredients, they may ask, “Are there times when this has been less of
a problem?” or “What did you (or others) do that was helpful?” Or “When was the last time
when something like this (client’s goal description) perhaps happened, even a little bit?”
Looking for exceptions
Even when a client does not have a fully developed previous solution that can be readily
repeated, most have recent examples of at least partial exceptions to their problem; no
problem happens to the same degree all the time. There are for example, times when a
problem could occur, but does not.
The difference between a previous solution and an exception is small, but potentially
significant. A previous solution is something that clients previously that worked, but was
perhaps later discontinued. An exception, on the other hand, is something that happens
instead of the problem, sometimes spontaneously and without conscious intention. SF
therapists may help clients identify these exceptions by asking, “What is different about the
times when this is less of a problem?”
Present and future-focused questions vs. past-oriented focus
The questions asked by SF therapists are usually focused on the present or on the future. This
reflects the basic belief that problems are best solved by focusing on what is already working,
and how a client would like their life to be, rather than focusing on the past and the origin of
problems. For example, they may ask, “What will you be doing in the next week that would
indicate to you that you are continuing to make progress?”
Compliments
Validating what clients are already doing well, and acknowledging how difficult their
problems are encourages the client to change while giving the message that the therapist has
been listening (i.e., understands) and cares.
Compliments in therapy sessions serve to punctuate and validate what the client is doing that
is working. In SF therapy, indirect compliments are often conveyed in the form of
appreciatively toned questions of “How did you do that?” that invite the client to self-
compliment by virtue of answering the question.
Inviting the clients to do more of what is working
Once SF therapists and their clients have identified some previous solutions and exceptions to
the problem, the therapists gently invite the clients to do more of what has previously
worked, or to try changes they have brought up which they would like to try – frequently
called an “experiment” or a “homework experiment.”
Miracle Question (MQ)
The Solution-Focused Miracle Question is oftentimes used as a vehicle for clients identifying
the unique details of the first small behavioral steps that gradually lead towards a viable
solution in the context of their everyday life. Here is an example of the Miracle Question:
T: I am going to ask you a rather strange question . . . that requires some imagination on your
part . . . do you have good imagination.
C: I think so, I will try my best.
T: Good. The strange question is this; After we talk, you go home (go back to work), and you
still have lots of work to do yet for the rest of today (list usual tasks here). And it is time to go
to bed . . . and everybody in your household is sound asleep and the house is very quiet . . .
and in the middle of the night, there is a miracle and the problem that brought you to talk to
me about is all solved . But because this happens when you are sleeping, you have no idea
that there was a miracle and the problems is solved . . . so when you are slowly coming out of
your sound sleep . . .what would be the first small sign that will make you wonder . . .there
must’ve been a miracle . . .the problem is all gone! How would you discover this?
C: I suppose I will feel like getting up and facing the day, instead of wanting to cover my
head under the blanket and just hide there.
T: Suppose you do, get up and face the day, what would be the small thing you would do that
you didn’t do this morning?
C: I suppose I will say good morning to my kids in a cheerful voice, instead of screaming at
them like I do now.
T: What would your children do in response to your cheerful “good morning?”
C: They will be surprised at first to hear me talk to them in a cheerful voice, and then they
will calm down, be relaxed. God, it’s been a long time that happened.
T: So, what would you do then that you did not do this morning?
C: I will crack a joke and put them in a better mood.
These small steps become the building blocks of an entirely different kind of day as clients
may begin to implement some of the behavioral changes they just envisioned.
The next step is to invite clients to identify the most recent times when the have experienced
some aspect (even the smallest pieces) of their miracle description (exceptions) and invite
them to experiment with replicating these in the context of their everyday life.
Scaling Questions
Scaling questions simultaneously allow both client and therapist to assess the client’s
situation, identify their current distance from the goal, what it will to maintain their current
level of progress and move forward. Clients can be invited to rate their level of motivation,
confidence, as well as identifying what specifically helps them progress on the scale in the
direction of their goal, “best hope,” or “miracle.”
The couple in the following example sought help to decide whether their marriage can
survive or they should get divorced. They reported they have fought for 10 years of their 20
years of marriage and they could not fight anymore.
T: Since you two know your marriage better than anybody does, suppose I ask you this way.
On a number of 1 to 10, where 10 stands for you have every confidence that this marriage
will make it and 1 stands for the opposite, that we might just as well walk away right now and
it’s not going to work. What number would you give your marriage? (After a pause, the
husband speaks first.)
H: I would give it a 7. (the wife flinches as she hears this)
T: (To the wife) What about you? What number would you give it?
W: (She thinks about it a long time) I would say I am at 1.1.
T: (Surprised) So, what makes it a 1.1?
W: I guess it’s because we are both here tonight. That’s at least a beginning.
The Miracle 10 Question
A hybrid of the Miracle Question and Scaling, the Miracle 10 Question is worded as follows:
Imagine a 0-10 scale in which 10 represents that you have now fully achieved your goal and
0 represents the exact opposite. Let’s suppose that tonight while you are sleeping somethings
shifts during the night and when you wake up tomorrow you are suddenly at a 10. But since
you were asleep when it happened, you don’t initially realize it. What will be the first
differences(s) that you or people around you begin to notice about you that begins to give you
(and/or them) the idea that something has changed, that in fact you are a 10 now?

Coping Questions
This question is a powerful reminder that all clients engage in many useful things even in
times of overwhelming difficulties. Even in the midst of despair, many clients do manage to
get out of bed, get dressed, feed their children, and do many other things that require major
effort. Coping questions such as “How have you managed to carry on?” or “How have you
managed to prevent things from becoming worse?” open up a different way of looking at
client’s resiliency and determination.