EmpathicPivot

The process is highly collaborative with the person co-constructing goals and making key decisions (De Jong, 2015).

SFBT spends no time on the problem, dysfunction or pathology and instead finds solutions unique to the person’s lived experience (De Shazer et al., 2021).

SFBT is presented as having little theoretical basis as it evolved inductively through observations of therapeutic sessions which originally were problem-focused, but became solution-focused as interventions that worked were incorporated in to the emerging model. However, as with Narrative Therapy, SFBT proposes that stories come to define people’s lives and if they are problem-focused they dominate the world-view of the person as leading a troubled life (Kondrat, 2014). A therapeutic approach that is problem-focused, that repeats the negative narratives, can therefore be iatrogenic – causing or reinforcing the problem that it is trying to resolve (Kondrat, 2014). SFBT shares Brown’s (2023) analysis of Narrative Therapy being a postmodern intervention in that it encourages people to find unique solutions using their diversity of experience to develop preferred futures and re-author their problem narrative—and identity—to create a problem free counternarrative. Similarly, as with Narrative Therapy, Cottone (2017) relates that SFBT is constructivist – where the understanding of what makes reality is defined through the interactions of communities, and it is the individual who is “the expert on their reality” (Langer & Leitz, 2015, p. 193). SFBT is influenced by postmodernism and social constructivism in that it is “concerned with how power relations are expressed” (Lo, 2023, p. 24).

Is empowering, strengths-based and practices respect for people and “faith in their capacity to change” (Lo, 2023, p. 25).

Is a person-centred approach that meets the person where they are, aims to understand them in their context (Langer & Leitz, 2015) and asks questions in a manner that always returns choice to them (De Jong, 2015).

Acknowledges that the problem is most likely to be systemic, so the person is not the problem (Langer & Leitz, 2015).

Shazer et al. (2021) outline the “major tenets” (p. 24) of SFBT as:

• If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it;
• If it works, do more of it;
• If it’s not working, do something different;
• Small steps can lead to big changes;
• The solution is not necessarily directly related to the problem;
• The language for solution development is different from that needed to describe a problem. (p. 24) 

The main interventions according to Shazer et al. (2021) are:

• A positive, collegial, solution-focused stance;
• Looking for previous solutions;
• Looking for exceptions;
• Questions vs. directives or interpretations;
• Present- and future-focused questions vs. past-orientated focus;
• Compliments;
• Gentle nudging to do more of what is working. (p. 24)

Other more specific interventions include setting solution-focused goals, using the “miracle question” that asks the person to consider a problem free future, and scaling questions that asks the person to rate their goals (De Shazer et al., 2021). As with other interventions, SFBT uses homework, but encourages the person to decide what it needs to be, or uses experiments proposed by the practitioner to build on what the person is already doing (De Shazer et al., 2021).

The practitioner takes a gentle guiding role in an egalitarian, though still hierarchical, relationship (De Shazer et al., 2021) and also assumes the roles of “a collaborator, a facilitator, and a questioner” (Cottone, 2017, p. 243). The practitioner uses a person-centred and strengths-based approach involving open questioning without judging or challenging (De Shazer et al., 2021). 

The person is a collaborator and the expert on their unique lived experience (Langer & Leitz, 2015). As with Narrative Therapy they decide on the future that they want to live (Lo, 2023).

Shazer et al. (2021) claim evidence to support use in family therapy, couples therapy and the treatment of sexual abuse, substance abuse and schizophrenia. It has also been identified as applicable for involuntary settings, groups and organisations (De Jong, 2015) and for externalising behaviours (aggression, oppositional, hyperactivity, conduct) and internalising behaviours (anxiety, depression, social withdrawal, OCD) (Kondrat, 2015).

Indications of positive changes in the person’s life with improvements to self-efficacy, coping skills, relationships and “healthy thinking, feeling and behaving to the degree that the client becomes satisfactorily functional” (Cottone, 2017, p. 243).

SFBT is a time-limited approach that can be used with a variety of other approaches, including strengths-based, crisis intervention and motivational interviewing, and applied in a variety of settings (Kondrat, 2015). By taking a contextual approach and positioning the person as the expert of their lived experience SFBT respects cultural values and differences (Kondrat, 2015). SFBT can be used to address a broad range of social justice issues as they impact on the person and find solutions for them, that may involve taking anti-oppressive positions and action in the person’s environment (Kondrat, 2015).

SFBT may be “inadequate for reducing problems among service users that could be harmful to themselves and others” (Lo, 2023, p. 25). By not focusing on problems SFBT may miss important information that could contribute to a solution and that in taking a non-blaming position a practitioner could overlook social injustices and power imbalances (Kondrat, 2015).

Brown, C. (2023). Postmodern theory in practice: Narrative practice in social work. In D. Hölscher, R Hugman & D. McAuliffe (Eds.), Social work theory and ethics: Ideas in practice (pp. 79-100). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1015-9_5

Cottone, R. (2017). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: Individual and relational approaches. Springer. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwa/detail.action?docID=4857220.

De Jong, P. (2015). Solution-focused therapy. In K. Corcoran & A. Roberts (Eds.), Social workers’ desk reference (3^rd ed., pp. 491-500). Oxford University Press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/UWA/detail.action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=1987674#

De Shazer, S., Dolan, Y., Korman, H., Trepper, T., McCollum, E., & Kim Berg, I. (2021). More than miracles: the state of the art of solution-focused brief therapy (Classic ed.). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/UWA/detail.action?docID=6413936

Kondrat, D. (2014). Solution-focused practice. In B. Teater (Ed.), An introduction to applying social work theories and methods, (2^nd ed., pp. 179-195). McGraw-Hill Education. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwa/detail.action?docID=1676154.

Langer, C., & Lietz, C. (2015). Applying theory to generalist social work practice: A case study approach.Wiley.

Lo, H. (2023). Psychological and clinical theories. In D. Hölscher, R Hugman & D. McAuliffe (Eds.), Social work theory and ethics: Ideas in practice (pp. 17-37). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1015-9_5