Most people working in helping professions spend much of their time supporting people through difficulties, challenges and complex situations.
What happened? What’s gone wrong? What’s stopping you from moving forwards? What needs fixing?
These are important questions, but when they dominate a conversation, it’s easy for both practitioner and client to become stuck in the problem itself.
Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) offers a different approach. Rather than spending most of the conversation analysing what’s wrong, it encourages us to explore what’s already working, what strengths people have and what small steps could move them towards the future they want.
This isn’t about ignoring difficulties or toxic positivity, it’s about creating the conditions that make behaviour change more likely.
What we focus on influences how we see possibilities
When people experience stress or ongoing challenges, the brain naturally focuses on threats and problems. This is our negativity bias – our tendency to notice what’s wrong more readily than what’s going well.
While this can help us stay safe, it can also make change feel impossible. The more we focus on problems alone, the harder it can be to recognise our strengths, previous successes and available resources and it becomes difficult to access motivation.
So, what can we do to change this in our conversations?
Solution Focused conversations intentionally provide an opportunity to shift attention in a different direction. We might, for example, explore exceptions that gently build hope by asking questions such as:
- When have things been a little better?
- What did you notice about that time?
- When did you manage to get the closest to your goal?
These kinds of questions encourage people to search for evidence of possibility rather than evidence that they are stuck.
Building confidence
A key factor that supports behaviour change is self-efficacy – our belief that we are capable of making change.
Rather than trying to motivate people through advice or persuasion, SFBT helps people recognise that they already have skills, experiences and strengths they can build upon.
Instead of sharing our ideas for solutions we might instead ask:
- “What will tell you that things are moving in a better direction?
- “What might you notice is different?”
- “What has helped you in the past?”
- “What strengths or resources do you have available to you?”
These types of person-centred questions which explore small, achievable steps create early successes. Those successes build confidence, making the next step feel more achievable. Over time, these small changes can lead to significant and lasting progress.
Better for clients and practitioners
How can these types of conversations be useful to both clients and practitioners?
Solution Focused conversations don’t just benefit the person receiving support, they can also transform the experience of the practitioner.
When every conversation centres on problems, practitioners can begin to feel responsible for finding solutions or “fixing” difficult situations. Staying in problem-focused conversations can contribute to practitioner frustration, compassion fatigue and burnout.
By shifting the conversation towards strengths, resources and progress, practitioners become curious collaborators rather than problem solvers. Conversations often feel more hopeful, more balanced and more energising for everyone involved.
Learn more
If you would like to learn more about Solution Focused skills and how to develop these in your practice, BHT Training will be running its next Solution Focused Brief Therapy training on 14 & 15 October.
Small shifts can create a big impact
Solution Focused Brief Therapy recognises that even in the most challenging circumstances, people often have strengths, experiences and resources that can support change. By helping people notice these and identify achievable next steps, practitioners can create conversations that build hope, confidence and progress.
Written by Suzanne Bardsley
Suzanne has over 16 years experience as a Lead Trainer with the National Centre for Behaviour Change where she delivers high-quality training across a range of evidence-based approaches, including Motivational Interviewing, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Group Facilitation Skills, Health Coaching, and Trauma-Informed Care.