BRIEF FAQ’s

Information…or “useful detail”? Teaching a course recently in Cardiff, I got into a discussion with Ania Dobek, a psychologist, about whether the word “information” is useful to describe what the solution focused practitioner is after.   While talking...

What are the disadvantages of the brief solution focused approach? Ups and downs, in and outs, strengths and weaknesses . . . pros and cons. It is hardly surprising that on solution focused courses participants are lead...

What if things gets worse? Most people’s lives do not work in terms of smooth transitions, seamlessly building from difficulty through resolution to self-fulfillment. Would that it were so (or perhaps not)! Most people’s lives are...

One thing after another  Steve de Shazer would often say that one way of thinking about good outcomes in therapy is to think of shifting with the client from ‘the same damn thing over and over’...

Introduction In Time’s Arrow Martin Amis reverses the direction of time. The book starts with the central protagonist dying into life and ends with him being born into non-existence. This structure offers Amis the opportunity to...

Introduction Steve de Shazer, the key originator of solution focused brief therapy, was much influenced in his therapeutic development by the work of the Brief Therapy Project at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California....

Introduction Many approaches to therapy or counseling make a distinction between ‘want’ and ‘need’. So if a client were to outline what he, or more probably she, wants from the therapy it would be legitimate on...

1. It all depends on what you mean by “integrate”! If by “integrate” it is intended that the sf approach can be combined with and melded with a problem focused approach, then the answer is ‘no’. If...

1. “As brief as possible and not one session longer!” This was the saying of one of the founders of the solution focused approach, Steve de Shazer. While the research shows that on average clients in...

One way to think about solution focused brief therapy is to take the view that at the heart of the approach lies a conversational shift. The therapist, using all the skills at her command, attempts...

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