Solution-focused Brief Therapy Presentation Handout

I don’t lead musicians, man. They lead me. I listen to them and learn what they do best.

– Miles Davis

Directions of Focus

  • Spend 25% of our time focusing on the circumstances
  • Spend 75% of our time focusing on the goals

About SFBT

  • Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg, and their colleagues developed Solution-Focused Brief Therapy starting in the late 1970’s
  • Utilized in business, social policy, education, criminal justice services, child welfare, and domestic violence offender treatment
  • Solution building, not problem solving
  • Not focused on giving advice but giving the client the chance to direct the process

Tenets of SFBT

  • If it’s not broken, don’t fix it
  • Look for exceptions
  • Asking questions rather than telling clients what to do
  • Future is negotiated and created
  • Complements
  • Gentle nudging to do more of what is working
  • Change is constant and inevitable
  • The solution is not always directly related to the problem

SFBT Interventions

  • Not knowing
  • Complementing strengths
  • Scaling questions
  • Exception questions
  • Coping questions
  • Miracle question

SFBT Connects to

  • Motivational Interviewing
  • Strengths perspective

You can see the original document that I created for the presentation I completed.