Focus on Solutions

Note: This is based on an article which was written for the Hampshire Association For Counselling Newsletter, which has been amended and extended for inclusion on the website in February 2003.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is a methodology which originates from the Brief Family Therapy Centre in Milwaukee (de Shazer, 1988). It can now be seen as one of a group of therapies; these include the work of, for example, John Walter and Jane Peller (Walter and Peller, 2001) and Bill O'Hanlon and his co-workers (O'Hanlon and Bertolino 1998). Some therapists combine the Solution Focused approach with hypnosis - Yvonne Dolan and Bill O'Hanlon for example. Links are also visible (to most of us) between Solution Focus and narrative therapies such as that originating from Michael White and David Epston (White and Epston 1990). British exponents of the Solution-Focused approach include the members of the Brief Therapy Practice, London (George et al 2000, Lethem 1994).

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is being applied to virtually every client group, for example schools and educational settings (Rhodes & Ajmal 1994, Ajmal and Rees 2000), child protection (Turnell and Edwards 1999), and eating disorders (Jakob, 2001). It is applicable as a complete therapy approach, or as a way of thinking and working which is available to any person who has to talk to clients, groups or organisations.

I started learning the approach at a seminar given by Steve de Shazer in London in 1994. It is now one of the main threads in my work as a counsellor. I'm still attending short courses to develop my understanding of Solution Focus and its close allies. These therapies are quite simple, but as De Shazer says, "simple" does not mean "easy".

The Brief Therapy Practice takes a minimal line on Solution-Focused therapy. They see it as comprising two steps:

Finding out where the client wants to get to, and
Finding out what the client has already done or is already doing which is likely to help him or her get there.
(George et al. BTP course leaflet, 1995.)

Learning to do so little can be rather dizzying!

Conversations about goals

Goals for therapy, and often for the session, are sought from clients in terms as clear and specific as possible. Well-defined goals seem to aid good, rapid outcome in this as in any therapy. However no area of client experience is denied or avoided in the search for clarity of purpose in the therapy. (Nor need the word 'goal' be used in therapy. It is always much better to listen to and use the terms the client comes up with.) A client coming along and saying that they want to be happy, for example, is not offering a concrete goal. How do they do happiness? What exactly will be happening on a happy day? What would they take as a first sign that happiness is returning (or arriving)? How would their children know they were happy? Questions like this can develop the detail of what happiness actually entails, and make the 'goal' of happiness much more fully formed, without reducing the meaning of the client's use of the word, or the urgency of the desire behind it. Then, as the client moves towards happiness (or away from it), they will have more signs available to them to notice what is happening.

The miracle question: "Suppose when you are asleep tonight, a miracle happens, and the problem vanishes - how will you know when you wake up that this miracle has happened?" is very useful in finding out what sort of life the client wants to attain - their preferred future. This question is commonly used in the first session, and when you follow it up with lots of questions to get details of the post-miracle scenario, it can have a powerful and immediate effect on the client's state of mind, as well as helping them (and you) define what they are after. If you or your client find the wording of this question difficult, you can use different forms of it - any question which allows clients a chance to describe a future in which the problem is absent will have a similar effect, provided that you take the answer very seriously and get lots of detail on it.

You may have noticed by now that eliciting detailed descriptions of every element of the client's preferred ways of being is crucial to Solution Focused therapy.

Talking about exceptions

Talking about exceptional times, where the problem which brought the client to therapy had less effect, or was absent, is an easy step on from talking about goals. For every rule there is an exception, and this includes the 'rule' that the client lives a problem-ridden life. "When has life been at least a little like this?" Can be asked when the post-miracle day has been described, or goals have been clearly stated.

A particular use of this sort of question is to ask what has been different since the client first called up and asked you for an appointment - i.e. pre-session change. Often there are exceptions, OK things, good things which happen in this pre-session period. Especially when you look for them. There is no way the client can 'blame' their counsellor for things which have been better before the counsellor even met them!

Once exceptions are described they can be fleshed out with (you guessed it) lots of detail, and clients can be invited to speculate about the difference that these things might make if they kept on happening, and how the OK things might be made to happen more often. Clients can also be invited to 'take charge' of exceptions - "How did you make this happen?" "How did you do that?" This cheering-on of exceptions is done in a way which is respectful of the client's difficulties. People who are ready to act in order to reach their solutions can talk about action. People in despair or really big trouble may benefit from talking about how they keep going, how they cope, how they keep things from getting worse. They may be put off by upbeat action-talk. Seeking to be brief thus brings special demands for matching the client's use of language, for empathy and respect - and often, for going slowly!

Compliments

Solution Focused talking offers many opportunities to compliment the client on what they are already doing by way of solutions, as well as praising the qualities which they show; for example courage in the face of abuse, endurance, humour, willingness to work hard to resolve their problems. These opportunities to give constructive feedback are taken with gusto by the Solution Focused practitioner, but without exaggerating or trying to persuade.

In workplaces where it is possible to take a break from a meeting with a client, the worker can leave the client, consult her team or have a few minutes thinking time, and then deliver her compliments to the client after the break. This is a powerfully effective way to encourage clients and can be combined with suggestions about behavioral or observational tasks for the client to do between sessions.

Where are solutions from?

The search for exceptional times when the problem did not rule, and the frequently rapid move to explore a preferred future rather than dwelling on the details of the client's problem, are conspicuous features of Solution Focused conversation. The principle in action here is the idea that a 'problem' and its 'solution' need not be related at all - rather, they are from different, unconnected places. Having applied Solution Focused techniques for a few years I believe that this is very frequently true.

Clients may however need to talk about the problem for a while rather than being hustled in to solution talk, and you will have to hear them well and acknowledge that they are in difficulty before you and they move on. This may take two minutes or six weeks... Listening to the problem will also give you a grasp of the context in which the client lives, which can be helpful when you and they are putting together solutions.

Scales

Scaling questions are a very valuable way to help clients 'quantify' their experience and monitor progress. "Imagine a scale from zero to ten, where zero is where you were when you telephoned me, and ten is after the miracle; where are you now on that scale?" The scale encompasses progress - "You're on three? How is three different from zero?" Also it can be used to clarify goals and agreements between helper and client - "Where would you need to be on this scale to make me redundant? And what will be happening then?" They also invite you and your client in to an inclusive way of thinking - both 'the problem is partly unresolved,' and 'I am doing things about it.' This can be a helpful antidote to veering from awful to good without noticing anything in-between!

Later sessions

Later sessions with clients mainly comprise going over the detail of new or different things which have been done in between the sessions, and making sure that the significance of desired changes partially or wholly achieved is richly described, enlarged and emphasised. "What did your partner make of this change?" "How did you manage it?" "What does this change tell you about yourself?" "How confident are you that you can keep this up?" Also, when it seems that goals for therapy are being reached, "Is this enough for us to part company, or what else do we need to talk about?"

In these later sessions clients often report that the changes that they are making are spreading out beyond the original problem area. They can also bring along quite new proposals for action, and whole new goals for therapy. These proposals seem to benefit from having a future tacked on to them - "If you do this, how will it help?" "What sort of differences will this make in your life?" - and a past as well - "When have you been able to do this before, even for a little while?" "How have you gone about this sort of thing inthe past?" In other words the solution-process, in miniature, can be re-applied at any stage.

Solution Focus has had a big impact on my thinking about my own life as well as my work with clients. It (along with some help from that old devil, NLP) has made me easier to get on with, apparently! As a therapy, it frequently works, often quickly, and can create lasting change, yet it is shockingly theory-free compared to many other approaches.

So: if something this simple works (with practice), why do more?

References

Ajmal, Y. and Rees, I. (Eds.)2001: Solutions in Schools. Brief Therapy Press.
De Shazer, S. 1988: Clues: Investigating Solutions in Brief Therapy. W.W.Norton.
Dolan, Y.M.1991.Resolving Sexual Abuse. W.W.Norton.
George, E., Iveson, C., & Ratner, H.1999: Problem to Solution: Brief Therapy with Individuals and Families. Brief Therapy Press.
Jakob, F.2002. Solution Focused Recovery From Eating Distress. Brief Therapy Press.
Lethem, J. 1994: Moved to Tears, Moved to Action: Solution focused Brief Therapy with Women and Children. Brief Therapy Press.
O'Hanlon, B. & Bertolino, B.1998. Even From A Broken Web. Wiley.
Rhodes, J. & Ajmal, Y.1995 Solution focused Thinking in Schools. Brief Therapy Press.
Turnell, A. & Edwards, S.1999. Signs of Safety. W.W.Norton.
Walter, J.L. and Peller, J.E.2000. Recreating Brief Therapy. W.W.Norton.
White, M. & Epston, D.1990: Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. W.W.Norton.

	Focus on Solutions Note: This is based on an article which was written for the Hampshire Association For Counselling* Newsletter, which has been amended and extended for inclusion on the website in February 2003.* Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is a methodology which originates from the Brief Family Therapy Centre in Milwaukee (de Shazer, 1988). It can now be seen as one of a group of therapies; these include the work of, for example, John Walter and Jane Peller (Walter and Peller, 2001) and Bill O'Hanlon and his co-workers (O'Hanlon and Bertolino 1998). Some therapists combine the Solution Focused approach with hypnosis - Yvonne Dolan and Bill O'Hanlon for example. Links are also visible (to most of us) between Solution Focus and narrative therapies such as that originating from Michael White and David Epston (White and Epston 1990). British exponents of the Solution-Focused approach include the members of the Brief Therapy Practice, London (George et al 2000, Lethem 1994). Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is being applied to virtually every client group, for example schools and educational settings (Rhodes & Ajmal 1994, Ajmal and Rees 2000), child protection (Turnell and Edwards 1999), and eating disorders (Jakob, 2001). It is applicable as a complete therapy approach, or as a way of thinking and working which is available to any person who has to talk to clients, groups or organisations. I started learning the approach at a seminar given by Steve de Shazer in London in 1994. It is now one of the main threads in my work as a counsellor. I'm still attending short courses to develop my understanding of Solution Focus and its close allies. These therapies are quite simple, but as De Shazer says, "simple" does not mean "easy". The Brief Therapy Practice takes a minimal line on Solution-Focused therapy. They see it as comprising two steps: Finding out where the client wants to get to, and Finding out what the client has already done or is already doing which is likely to help him or her get there. (George et al. BTP course leaflet, 1995.) Learning to do so little can be rather dizzying! Conversations about goals Goals for therapy, and often for the session, are sought from clients in terms as clear and specific as possible. Well-defined goals seem to aid good, rapid outcome in this as in any therapy. However no area of client experience is denied or avoided in the search for clarity of purpose in the therapy. (Nor need the word 'goal' be used in therapy. It is always much better to listen to and use the terms the client comes up with.) A client coming along and saying that they want to be happy, for example, is not offering a concrete goal. How do they do happiness? What exactly will be happening on a happy day? What would they take as a first sign that happiness is returning (or arriving)? How would their children know they were happy? Questions like this can develop the detail of what happiness actually entails, and make the 'goal' of happiness much more fully formed, without reducing the meaning of the client's use of the word, or the urgency of the desire behind it. Then, as the client moves towards happiness (or away from it), they will have more signs available to them to notice what is happening. The miracle question: "Suppose when you are asleep tonight, a miracle happens, and the problem vanishes - how will you know when you wake up that this miracle has happened?" is very useful in finding out what sort of life the client wants to attain - their preferred future. This question is commonly used in the first session, and when you follow it up with lots of questions to get details of the post-miracle scenario, it can have a powerful and immediate effect on the client's state of mind, as well as helping them (and you) define what they are after. If you or your client find the wording of this question difficult, you can use different forms of it - any question which allows clients a chance to describe a future in which the problem is absent will have a similar effect, provided that you take the answer very seriously and get lots of detail on it. You may have noticed by now that eliciting detailed descriptions of every element of the client's preferred ways of being is crucial to Solution Focused therapy. Talking about exceptions Talking about exceptional times, where the problem which brought the client to therapy had less effect, or was absent, is an easy step on from talking about goals. For every rule there is an exception, and this includes the 'rule' that the client lives a problem-ridden life. "When has life been at least a little like this?" Can be asked when the post-miracle day has been described, or goals have been clearly stated. A particular use of this sort of question is to ask what has been different since the client first called up and asked you for an appointment - i.e. pre-session change. Often there are exceptions, OK things, good things which happen in this pre-session period. Especially when you look for them. There is no way the client can 'blame' their counsellor for things which have been better before the counsellor even met them! Once exceptions are described they can be fleshed out with (you guessed it) lots of detail, and clients can be invited to speculate about the difference that these things might make if they kept on happening, and how the OK things might be made to happen more often. Clients can also be invited to 'take charge' of exceptions - "How did you make this happen?" "How did you do that?" This cheering-on of exceptions is done in a way which is respectful of the client's difficulties. People who are ready to act in order to reach their solutions can talk about action. People in despair or really big trouble may benefit from talking about how they keep going, how they cope, how they keep things from getting worse. They may be put off by upbeat action-talk. Seeking to be brief thus brings special demands for matching the client's use of language, for empathy and respect - and often, for going slowly! Compliments Solution Focused talking offers many opportunities to compliment the client on what they are already doing by way of solutions, as well as praising the qualities which they show; for example courage in the face of abuse, endurance, humour, willingness to work hard to resolve their problems. These opportunities to give constructive feedback are taken with gusto by the Solution Focused practitioner, but without exaggerating or trying to persuade. In workplaces where it is possible to take a break from a meeting with a client, the worker can leave the client, consult her team or have a few minutes thinking time, and then deliver her compliments to the client after the break. This is a powerfully effective way to encourage clients and can be combined with suggestions about behavioral or observational tasks for the client to do between sessions. Where are solutions from? The search for exceptional times when the problem did not rule, and the frequently rapid move to explore a preferred future rather than dwelling on the details of the client's problem, are conspicuous features of Solution Focused conversation. The principle in action here is the idea that a 'problem' and its 'solution' need not be related at all - rather, they are from different, unconnected places. Having applied Solution Focused techniques for a few years I believe that this is very frequently true. Clients may however need to talk about the problem for a while rather than being hustled in to solution talk, and you will have to hear them well and acknowledge that they are in difficulty before you and they move on. This may take two minutes or six weeks... Listening to the problem will also give you a grasp of the context in which the client lives, which can be helpful when you and they are putting together solutions. Scales Scaling questions are a very valuable way to help clients 'quantify' their experience and monitor progress. "Imagine a scale from zero to ten, where zero is where you were when you telephoned me, and ten is after the miracle; where are you now on that scale?" The scale encompasses progress - "You're on three? How is three different from zero?" Also it can be used to clarify goals and agreements between helper and client - "Where would you need to be on this scale to make me redundant? And what will be happening then?" They also invite you and your client in to an inclusive way of thinking - both 'the problem is partly unresolved,' and 'I am doing things about it.' This can be a helpful antidote to veering from awful to good without noticing anything in-between! Later sessions Later sessions with clients mainly comprise going over the detail of new or different things which have been done in between the sessions, and making sure that the significance of desired changes partially or wholly achieved is richly described, enlarged and emphasised. "What did your partner make of this change?" "How did you manage it?" "What does this change tell you about yourself?" "How confident are you that you can keep this up?" Also, when it seems that goals for therapy are being reached, "Is this enough for us to part company, or what else do we need to talk about?" In these later sessions clients often report that the changes that they are making are spreading out beyond the original problem area. They can also bring along quite new proposals for action, and whole new goals for therapy. These proposals seem to benefit from having a future tacked on to them - "If you do this, how will it help?" "What sort of differences will this make in your life?" - and a past as well - "When have you been able to do this before, even for a little while?" "How have you gone about this sort of thing inthe past?" In other words the solution-process, in miniature, can be re-applied at any stage. Solution Focus has had a big impact on my thinking about my own life as well as my work with clients. It (along with some help from that old devil, NLP) has made me easier to get on with, apparently! As a therapy, it frequently works, often quickly, and can create lasting change, yet it is shockingly theory-free compared to many other approaches. So: if something this simple works (with practice), why do more? References Ajmal, Y. and Rees, I. (Eds.)2001: Solutions in Schools. Brief Therapy Press. De Shazer, S. 1988: Clues: Investigating Solutions in Brief Therapy. W.W.Norton. Dolan, Y.M.1991.Resolving Sexual Abuse. W.W.Norton. George, E., Iveson, C., & Ratner, H.1999: Problem to Solution: Brief Therapy with Individuals and Families. Brief Therapy Press. Jakob, F.2002. Solution Focused Recovery From Eating Distress. Brief Therapy Press. Lethem, J. 1994: Moved to Tears, Moved to Action: Solution focused Brief Therapy with Women and Children. Brief Therapy Press. O'Hanlon, B. & Bertolino, B.1998. Even From A Broken Web. Wiley. Rhodes, J. & Ajmal, Y.1995 Solution focused Thinking in Schools. Brief Therapy Press. Turnell, A. & Edwards, S.1999. Signs of Safety. W.W.Norton. Walter, J.L. and Peller, J.E.2000. Recreating Brief Therapy. W.W.Norton. White, M. & Epston, D.1990: Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. W.W.Norton. © Robert Cumming, 2003
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Last updated: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 www.gethelp.co.uk