Solution Focused Brief Therapy

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT or SFT) as developed by therapists Steve De Shazer (1934-2005) and Insoo Kim Berg (1940-2005) and their colleagues at their clinic in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the late 1970's. Most types of psychological therapy involve exploring feelings, being validated, finding explanations, understanding rationals, and gaining clarity. Every psychologist or therapist has unique ways of working with clients, based on their personality, training and views of how people change. There are many paradigms that encompass the schools of psychology as well as dichotomies but most focus on the past or history of a person and the life they have lived. Some are very popular and a few are famous. All of them have been created with good intentions and most are still successfully used.

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But what about their current life? What about their future? What if all the things we focused on understanding about past we applied to our current and future life? Being trained in Marriage and Family Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy is a type of therapy that really spoke to me as a way to help people who are struggling with issues in today's society. As we progress with science and technology, it seems that people have less and less time to be with themselves, let alone one another. The constant pressure to do more and be more undermines the actual personal accomplishments and goals when a person succeeds, so they miss the opportunity to recognize and celebrate tose achievement. The race through life seems as though it has become so furious that the milestones are missed, the goals and dreams are left by the wayside and more individuals are left unfulfilled, turning to negative influences to numb their realities. We need to halt and reverse this pattern.

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What happens in Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT):

1. Instead of going over the past events and focusing on those issues, you envision your future without today's problems.

2. Typically the course of therapy is often decided by the client, where together you discover the best solutions since the client is the expert on themselves and the professional is the guide.

3. The therapist encourages you to identify what is working, when to do more of it and helps you identify anything else you could be doing that might work better.

4. The professional guides you to identify what isn't working and supports you by understanding when you do it and encourages you to do less of it. 

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This work is widely applicable with years of empirical evidence to support it's efficacy . Utilizing these methods, I help you plan achievable, measurable steps to your goal, help identify any areas of setbacks, hold you as accountable as possible and cheer you on when you achieve success!! Nothing is easy. It takes work and effort. Sometimes lots of effort. Change is a process. There may be sacrifices you  have to make and I will help you weigh those out. There will be challenges and it's my task to help will help you put them in perspective. I will help you clear a new path.

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This is a great method for couples who are experiencing strife as well. It makes me so sad when I see couples break up over things I know are fixable. Now that screens are a part of everyday life it makes interpersonal communication so much more difficult! Young people do not know how to really express emotions by appropriate dialog. People do not understand that texting does not confer the emotions you express when you send it, only the emotions the person that receives it is already feeling. So the feelings the other person is catching, often times in a heated moment, are miscommunicated, typically leading to bigger, and worse, endings.