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.