Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

SFBT is theoretically minimalist to the point of provocation. It has no theory of personality, no theory of pathology, and no interest in acquiring one. The position is not laziness but a considered constructivist claim: how a problem is described determines what can be done about it, so time spent constructing a detailed account of the problem builds a more elaborate problem.

The three rules

1. 1If it is not broken, do not fix it.
2. 2If something works, do more of it.
3. 3If it does not work, do something different.

There is none, by design. What exists are clients with complaints, and complaints that are described as constant when in fact they fluctuate. Exceptions — times when the problem does not occur, or occurs less — are always present and are systematically overlooked by both client and therapist because attention is on the problem.

Change is assumed to be constant and already underway; the therapist’s job is to notice it, describe it in detail, and amplify it.

1. 1Construct a detailed, sensory, behavioural description of the preferred future.
2. 2Find exceptions — times the preferred future is already occurring, however partially.
3. 3Establish what the client did to bring those about, converting luck into agency.
4. 4Scale the difference, and identify what one point higher would look like.
5. 5Assign the smallest possible next step, or simply notice what is already better.