Winner of the Greater London Training Award

Course Profile: Solution Focused Brief Therapy (1 – 3 Days)

Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) was developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, along with others in their team, at the Brief Therapy Family Centre in Milwaukee, USA during the 1980s. This approach was itself inspired by the work of innovators such as Milton Erickson and others at the Mental Research Institute at Palo Alto in California.

Research suggests that SFBT can bring about lasting change on average in less than 5 sessions and in over 80% of referrals. Rather than attempt to resolve the problem, the approach is to look at solutions and at ways of reaching them. SFBT considers what might be, helping people see potential that otherwise might not be recognised. It identifies and encourages courses of action that otherwise might not considered or taken. Through focusing on the future, SFBT aims to move the person out of a mind state that keeps her/him ‘trapped’ in the present and encourages the visioning of a different future.

Learning objectives:

By the end of this course participants should be able to:

  • Understand how and why Solution Focused Brief Therapy was developed
  • Grasp the basic concepts, assumptions and principles of the Solution-Focused approach
  • Understand and be able to put into practice the essential tools at the core of this therapeutic approach
  • Be better at setting goal collaboratively with service users and in uncovering clues and keys essential to the building of solutions
  • Understand how SFBT compares, and where it belongs, in relation to cognitive behavioural (CBT) and person-centred approaches
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    Understand the importance of connections between sessions

    Content:
  • The History of SFBT
  • Overview of SFBT Theory
  • Key Assumptions of the approach
  • Solution Building rather than Problem Solving
  • Description and explanations of Key Tools
  • Practical Application of Key Tools
  • Questions
  • The Miracle Question
  • Scaling
  • Exception Seeking
  • Coping
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  • Paradoxical Injunctions
    Resources
  • The Change Process
  • Session ‘Flow’
  • Session Planning
  • The Break
  • Client Tasks
  • Patterns and Themes
  • Feedback and Evaluation

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    Working methods:

    Ice breaking exercises        Trainer Presentation        Individual work        Work in pairs
    Role play and ‘as if’ work    Work in small and larger groups                    Word storming
    Energising Exercises        Facilitated discussion    Specific Practice of SFBT tools
    Participant feedback and peer evaluation                PowerPoint            Handouts

     

     

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