Large effectiveness: 0.80
What is Solution-focused Brief Therapy?
1. Goal-directed collaborative approach to psychotherapeutic change that is conducted
through direct observation of clients’ responses to a series of precisely constructed questions.
2. Focuses on addressing what clients want to achieve without exploring the history and provenance of problem(s).
3. Sessions typically focus on the present and future, focusing on the past only to the degree necessary for communicating empathy and accurate understanding of the client’s concerns.
4. Discovered when research team studied thousands of hours observing live and recorded therapy sessions.
5. Causes of problems may be extremely complex, their solutions do not necessarily need
to be.
6. Techniques: The miracle question (if your problem was solved by a miracle overnight, what small change would make you think there had been a miracle?)
Scaling Questions (tracking experiences)
Exception-seeking questions (when is there relief from your problems?)
Coping Questions (How do you cope so well?)
Problem-free Talk (discussing problem-free areas of life)
Evidence:
0.34 small effect: increased health-related psychosocial outcomes (Zhang, Franklin, Currin-McCulloch, Park, & Kim, 2017)
1.26 large effect: decreased internalizing behaviors (fearfulness, social withdrawal, and somatic complaints) (Kim, Franklin, Zhang, Liu, Qu, & Chen, 2015).
Kim, J. S., Franklin, C., Zhang, Y., Liu, X., Qu, Y., & Chen, H. (2015). Solution-focused brief therapy in China: A meta-analysis. Journal Of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity In Social Work: Innovation In Theory, Research & Practice, 24(3), 187-201. doi:10.1080/15313204.2014.991983
Zhang, A., Franklin, C., Currin-McCulloch, J., Park, S., & Kim, J. (2017). The effectiveness of strength-based, solution-focused brief therapy in medical settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal Of Behavioral Medicine, doi:10.1007/s10865-017-9888-1
How To Therapy 