SOLUTION-FOCUSED BRIEF THERAPY: STEPS AND PREMISES - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The brief solution - focused therapy is a type of therapy that does not require a large number of sessions. Normally, it does not exceed ten sessions - unlike the long therapies that used to be carried out in the past

It is a brief therapy modality developed at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee by Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg and their team. Its theoretical premises and technical approaches are greatly influenced by the therapeutic work of authors such as Milton H. Erickson, as well as by the clinical approach developed at the Mental Research Institute of Palo Alto (Fisch, Weakland & Segal, 1982).

Therefore, solution-focused brief therapy is born out of the work of numerous therapists, including Harry Stack Sullivan and his hypnosis techniques and vision of a trouble-free future.

Features of solution-focused brief therapy

This new way of doing therapy is characterized, especially, by the following aspects:

It's brief

As its name suggests, it is a type of therapy that does not require a large number of sessions. Normally, it does not exceed ten.

Here and now

Another fundamental characteristic is that the therapist focuses on the here and now, solving all those problems that negatively affect the patient's life.

This does not mean that issues from the past are not discussed, simply that those problems that were important previously but do not affect the current life of the person are not of interest.

Focused on finding solutions, not a diagnosis

He is not interested in making a diagnosis ("obsessive neurosis", "anorexia nervosa", "ambiguity in parental roles", etc.). The important thing in this therapy is to bring to light the areas in which the patient has difficulties, seek solutions and apply them.

It does not correct or educate

The therapist does not assume an expert position. This therapy does not focus on highlighting everything that the person, couple or family is doing improperly. It does not educate or correct the defects of patients.

Work with multiple people

It can work with isolated individuals, couples or families, depending on the reason for demand and the specific needs of the patient.

For example, when it is estimated that a person around them is accentuating or maintaining their difficulties, they can be invited to come for a consultation so that they can help in the therapeutic process.

Team

To carry out this therapy, the therapist is helped by a team or consultants with whom he analyzes the specific difficulties of the patient.

Goals guide

The solution-focused brief therapy operationally defines the therapeutic goals, which will mark the path that therapy should take and constitute an indicator of therapeutic success.

In other words, the therapeutic objectives are those that guide and help to evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy, ending it when these objectives have been achieved.

Fundamental difference with other therapies

In solution-focused brief therapy, it is very common to ask the patient what his life would be like without the problems that brought him to therapy.

They focus their attention on the patient being able to visualize this new life, without their current problem or problems, through the meticulous and detailed description. In this way, the person manages to imagine what their life would be like and the differences it would make with respect to their current situation.

Here we find a fundamental difference with respect to traditional therapies, in which they focused on extensively detailing the problem, highlighting the negative effects that they entailed, in such a way that they increased the perception of gravity and strengthened the patient's dependence on the therapist.

Advantages of this therapy

This method of proceeding has 3 fundamental advantages over the preceding therapies:

• Shorten the duration of the sessions.
• It gives the patient confidence, since the change he seeks depends largely on him.
• It allows to obtain the desired results in a few sessions - sometimes less than five.

Steps from t

The procedures that are carried out in solution-focused brief therapy can be summarized in 5 fundamental points.

1. Planning the session to be carried out and issuing a subsequent hypothesis, based on the information collected.

2. Introduction of the session. It usually begins by establishing a comfortable relationship in which the patient is asked about her favorite activities, her strengths and other positive aspects that are in her life today.

3. Extraction of information through circular questions. The team notes, in positive terms, everything that happens in the session, the behaviors carried out by the patient, etc.

4. There is a pause in which the extracted information is analyzed and the problem is redefined.

5. After the break that has been carried out, you begin by praising the person, family or partner and propose changes to be made in the near future.

In a later session, we can check if they have made the proposed changes, which will indicate if the patient / s are engaging in therapy as they should.

This way of working resembles the setting of the School of Milan, although the therapeutic style is warmer and closer in brief therapy focused on solutions.

Premises of solution-focused brief therapy

Social constructionism

This premise refers to the ability that clients have to construct reality, to tell them to themselves and, most importantly, to be able to modify these constructions for more useful ones, negotiating them within social interaction.

Following Wittgenstein, these constructions can be understood as “language games”, in such a way that therapy would be considered a process in which

clients modify their maladaptive language for one that is more focused on solutions.

It is intended to "read the lines", not "between the lines"

This therapy is not about discovering an absolute truth or reality, so techniques such as "reading between the lines" are not used. Therefore, the idea that there are different levels of depth (unconscious, repressed childhood traumas, etc.) is rejected.

O'Hanlon (1994) also refers to this premise when he states that “the problem is not the person (or the family); the problem is the problem.

The task of solution-focused brief therapy is not to look for hidden clues underneath what the clients say, but simply to help them talk or narrate the problem in such a way that they can find solutions, more positive and productive alternatives to the complaint.

Rejection of normativism

From solution-focused brief therapy, no single model of a “healthy” person or “functional” family / couple is conceived. It is understood, on the contrary, that there are multiple ways of acting and behaving, none of them being, a priori, superior to the others.

Therefore, it is not intended that clients follow a line of action established in advance (such as making the family increase their level of communication, or that the person mature).

Examples of objectives that are intended to be achieved with this therapy could be:

• Make the client enjoy with his children again before suffering a traffic accident.
• Get a couple to regain passion in sexual relationships.
• Getting a teenager to quit substance use.

Problem and solution are conceived as discontinuous categories

This premise refers to the belief that two people, faced with a similar complaint, can generate alternative solutions that are very different from each other.

For example, in the case of two people who have received the same diagnosis by a psychiatrist, such as depression, in this therapy, one of them can solve their problems by leaning on their loved ones while the other decides to get more involved in work.

The opposite case can also occur, in which two similar solutions can be carried out in two people with a very different diagnosis. As can be seen, in brief therapy focused on solutions, it is not necessary to know the problem in depth to be able to solve it, nor its frequency, nor the way in which it was generated.

It is enough to find solutions, detect the resources of the clients (personal, social and professional), find ways to achieve it and maintain the achievements.

Clients have the necessary resources

According to this last premise, clients can achieve their objectives on their own - even if they currently need external help to guide them or remind them of their capabilities.

The way to find those resources that have been forgotten is through conversation that, as we have already been commenting, does not focus on delving into the depths of the problems, but rather detecting and acting on them.

Criticisms of solution-focused brief therapy

Solution-focused brief therapy, despite its current popularity and scientific interest and support, is not without criticism.

Watzlawick (1992), for example, stated that it is a reductionist therapy of complex reality, since it does not focus on knowing the person and the environment in which they operate in depth. Therefore, these would be techniques that are carried out without the certainty that they are the most suitable for the person in question.

Hoffman (1990), on the other hand, stated that they are "colored lenses" through which we see our surroundings. According to this author, as much as solution-focused brief therapy is dressed in the guise of objectivity, this theoretical model dictates what we can see and what not, what is more, they determine where to look and where not to look, what to talk about and what to do. what not, etc.

Other authors, for their part, have dismissed this form of therapy as "radical" or "blunt", since it is not usually complemented with other working methods.

We hope this article has been interesting for you and has helped you to have a deeper and more objective view of the characteristics of solution-focused brief therapy.

References

1. Beyebach, M. (2010). Introduction to solution-focused brief therapy. Available in: Penal Code of the Republic of Bolivia, Law,

   (1768).

2. Espina Barrio, JA, & Cáceres Pereira, JL (1999). A brief solution-focused psychotherapy. Journal of the Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry., 19 (69), 023-038.
3. Sáez, MT (2006). Postmodern therapies: a brief introduction to collaborative therapy, narrative therapy, and solution-focused therapy. Behavioral Psychology, 14 (3), 511-532.
4. Weakland, J., Fisch, R., Watzlawick, PAUL, & Bodin, A. (1974). Brief therapy: focused on problem solving. Family Process, 13, 141-68.