SOLUTION FOCUSED THERAPY

Solution Focused Brief Therapy with Families, Couples, and Children

Table of Contents

History3

Family systems theory4

Solution-focused therapy4

Solution-focused theory Verses typical problem solving approach4

Appealing fact5

Philosophy of Solution focus therapy5

Family theories7

a) Co-constructing a problem and goal8

b) Identifying and amplifying exceptions8

c) Assigning tasks8

d) Evaluating the effectiveness of tasks9

(e) Re-evaluating the problem and goal9

Techniques of Solution Focus Therapy10

Research on Solution Focus Therapy14

Reference16

Solution Focused Brief Therapy with Families, Couples, and Children

History

Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg, and a group of their associates developed solution-focused therapy (SFT) in the early 1980s at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2008). It grew out of the postmodern movement and is a social constructionist view. In accordance with this Lee observed, Solution-focused brief family therapy views problems as being developed and maintained within the context of human interactions. The task of therapy, therefore, is to help clients do something different by changing their interactive behaviors or their interpretations of behaviors and situations so that a solution can be achieved (DeShazer, 2007).

The founders were influenced by the work at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, Milton H. Erikson, Wittgensteinian philosophy, and Buddhist thought (de Shazer , 2007). The approach was developed by viewing sessions to discover what worked and why it worked (de Shazer et al., 2007; Kiser & Piercy, 2005). It is considered brief therapy because it is a focused approach on specific complaints that leads to an outcome in 10 sessions or less 99.9% of the time (Kiser & Piercy, 2005).

Developed during the time that the DSM III had been released, the solution-focused approach was a reaction against the focus on problems, diagnosis, and the pathologizing of behaviors and people (Kiser & Piercy, 2005; Gingerich & Eisengart, 2006). It is not either a person has a symptom or he does not. That a certain behavior is labeled a symptom is arbitrary: In some other setting or with a different meaning attached, the same behavior would be both appropriate and normal (de Shazer, 2007).

Family systems theory

The family systems theory is a theory that convinces that persons cannot be unstated, when living alone, or in separation with one another. In the family, each member of the family has a role to play in a particular family and have certain rules and regulation attached to each family to respect and obey. Family members play a role which allotted to them by relationship agreements. Family systems can be balanced by maintaining the behaviors.

Solution-focused therapy

Solution Focused Therapy (SFT), as the term is self explanatory, its focal point is on solutions and is goal-oriented, rather than problem focused. It concerned with finding solutions to problems and oriented to the present and future.

Reviewing solution focused literature, certain claims were the center of attraction that the model capitulate rapid client change, durable customer change, intense occurrence of a single session cures, and exceptional-customer satisfaction. It is very easy to take into consideration how these claims along with the model give emphasis to customer strengths and ...