Solution-focused therapy: characteristics, goals and how it works

Let us see what solution-focused therapy is and how this type of psychotherapy is used.

In most psychotherapeutic approaches, the fundamental objectives that are usually addressed during the sessions are usually the problems or difficulties experienced by the patient.

In contrast, solution-focused therapy (SCT) focuses primarily on the solutions to the problems that have led the patient to seek professional help. Therefore, the psychotherapist's mode of intervention during the sessions consists of cooperative work with the patient.

In the following we shall see what solution-focused therapy consists of and which are its main characteristics.

What does solution-focused therapy (SCT) consist of?

Solution-focused therapy is a therapeutic model that focuses primarily on reusing, in a more appropriate way, the patients' own solutions that they have carried out to try to solve their problem.. All this taking into account that the problem or difficulty is not causing discomfort at all times, but there are times when it does not appear or, at least, is presented with less intensity, being these moments what is known in SCT as "exceptions".

This therapy is based on the point of view of family systemic therapies, since it arises from the General Theory of Systems where the client, his family and the interaction in therapy, the client's family and the interaction in therapy, are the main actors in the therapy.and their family and the interaction in therapy are conceptualized as systems. However, SCT can also be used for individual therapy sessions.

Characteristics of solution-focused therapy

The theoretical premises on which SCT is based are set out in this section.

Positive view of the human being

First of all, solution-focused therapy is a model of therapy with a positive view of the human being. The fundamental premise is that all people possess some kind of positive competencies, i.e., that all people possess some kind of positive competencies..

This means that any person has a series of personal qualities that should be used in the therapeutic process. Hence the name of the therapy as "solution-focused".

These qualities or competencies are potentially seen as the solution to their problem and, therefore, SCT focuses on facilitating the conditions conducive to change, without focusing so much on the problem itself.

Also conceives of each individual as unique and unrepeatable.The self-reflection of the individual is a way of thinking, being responsible for his or her own life, and perceives them as goal-oriented beings who seek to continually set goals that they seek to achieve.

2. Constructivism as a starting point

For this therapy relational constructivism is understood as the way in which each person constructs his or her own reality.. In other words, each person has his or her own particular way of conceiving the events occurring around him or her and the same event is perceived differently by each person and, in turn, each of these people constructs his or her own account of what happened.

3. Antidiagnostic therapy

It should be noted that solution-focused therapy is another anti-diagnostic therapy, with a view that psychology should not standardize what is considered correct and what is not.. Its premise, over and above the diagnosis, is the fact that there is a person who is suffering and that is what should be focused on; conceiving that such suffering is caused by a problem and it is on solving that problem that therapy should be centered.

4. Systemic therapy

It is a systemic model that does not consider that it is the family that causes the development of the problem due to confrontational interactions between its members, but has a point of view from which the family is seen as a source of resources for the patient, being its members a support for the patient who seeks help in his process of change..

5. The key is in the way people perceive problems.

This therapy has a peculiar name to allude to the reason why people have problems, using the expression "shit happens" translated as "shit happens". What it basically means is that you can't avoid difficulties throughout life, it's the way we cope with them.It is the way in which we face those difficulties that makes them bigger.

6. It does not try to change people

The goal of solution-focused therapy, as with its predecessor IRM, is not to fix people's problems, nor to try to change them, but rather to help people achieve their goals. seeks to help people achieve their goals, successfully using their own personal resources to achieve them..

7. The therapist assumes the role of facilitator rather than expert.

The therapist assumes the idea that it should be the patient who should decide what is good for him/herself and the therapist is in charge, through his/her techniques, of helping the patient to achieve his/her goals. This is done assuming a point of view of not knowing what is good for the patient, so that it is he who must choose what he wants to achieve and how he thinks he should work for it..

Therefore, therapist and patient, from SCT, collaborate together and conceive the patient as the expert in his problems and the therapist as the expert in helping him to solve those problems. One way to help the patient is by analyzing with him/her when in his/her life he/she has been closer to achieving his/her goals and what means are available to progress towards them.

It is for this reason that the therapist must have a very empathic attitude towards the patient.The aim is to discover the patient's qualities and strengths that can help him/her to achieve his/her goals, as well as to connect with his/her values; besides, this attitude favors a solid therapeutic alliance that facilitates the patient's trust in his/her therapist.

Techniques used during the therapeutic process

These are some of the techniques most commonly used by psychologists who follow the solution-focused therapy model.

1. Searching for exceptions

This technique is used to ask the patient about the occasions when the symptom or problem that is causing him/her discomfort does not appear. It is a technique of projection into the future in order to negotiate the patient's goals..

2. Propositional questions

This technique is developed in the form of a question to the patient, to reflect on whether there are exceptional moments or if you have noticed improvements with respect to your problem.. The search for exceptions or advances with respect to the patient's problem is due to the fact that these moments could be the key to finding solutions to the patient's problem.

3. Praise

This resource is used in this therapeutic model in order to highlight what the patient is doing. highlight what the patient is doing well and what helps him/her to do it, so that he/she can be proud of what he/she is doing well.so that he can be proud of himself and in turn motivated to progress towards his goals.

4. Scalar questions

This is one of the most representative techniques of solution-focused therapy, and it consists of asking the patient to assess consists of asking the patient to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 a number of situations (p. e.g., current perceived severity of the problem, degree of improvement from the previous session, degree of improvement expected to develop in the next session, etc.).

The aim of this technique is not to achieve a certain number on the scale, but to talk to the patient during the session about the answers he/she has given.

There are a series of questions recommended by Beyebach, an expert in solution-focused therapywith regard to the scalar questioning technique:

• Ask about what is going right so that you are not at an even lower score.
• Ask what changes would need to occur for him to move up one point on that scale.
• Ask what that moment would consist of when he has reached the maximum score on the scale.

5. Miracle questions

It consists of proposing to the patient to imagine a situation in which his problem has suddenly disappeared completely, as if it were a miracle.as if it were a miracle, and then he is asked to describe this situation.

Brief historical review of this psychotherapy.

The beginnings of solution-focused therapy date back to the 1980s, by the therapists Insoo Kim Berg and her husband Steve de ShazerThey used the systemic model of the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto (California) and, on the basis of this model, decided to develop a new therapeutic approach, solution-focused therapy.

This approach began to be developed at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee (USA) and, over the years, spread to the rest of the country, as well as to Latin America and Europe.

The MRI model, predecessor to solution-focused therapy, influences SCT in the way of seeing the origin of the problems for which the patient seeks therapeutic help and these are usually crises or life transitions that are considered problems when the person perceives them as such, going on to try to solve them without success and even continuing to try despite having been previously unsuccessful.