Brief counseling approaches have grown in influence in recent years. Solution-focused counseling is a brief counseling approach that was developed in the 1980s and focuses on helping clients access their own strengths and resources to solve problems. The counselor's role is to work collaboratively with the client to explore exceptions to problems and develop solutions. Solution-focused counseling uses techniques like the miracle question, scaling questions, and compliments to help clients envision and work towards solutions instead of just focusing on problems. While it does not consider a comprehensive view of human nature, solution-focused counseling has strengths like being positive, flexible, and emphasizing small behavioral changes, though it may lack focus on client history or insight.

1. Brief Counseling
Approaches

2. Introduction
 grown in scope and influence in recent years.
 Older systematic approaches like Mental
Research Institute(MRI)-approach to
strategic therapy in Palo Alto, California;
designed to be brief therapy.(Watzlawick,
Weakland,& Fisch,1974)
 Newer approaches- Solution focused
counseling and narrative therapy- explicitly
designed to be brief
 Important in age where people and institutions
are demanding quick and effective mental
health services. (Presbury, Echterling, &

3.  Skills employed in these approaches important for-
counselors in managed care settings and in public
settings.
 characterized by both foci and time-limited
emphasis.
 Most brief counseling- not systematic in nature.
However, Strategic counseling is both systematic and
time limited.
 Techniques-concrete and goal oriented
 Counselors –active in helping foster change and in
bringing it about.
 Emphasis-identify solutions and resources
 Number of sessions limited to increase client focus
and motivation.

4. Solution-Focused
Counseling

5. Founders/Developers
 commonly known as Solution-focused brief
therapy(SFBT)
 midwestern phenomenon
 originated in its present form in the 1980s,by
Steve deShazer and Bill O’Hanlon, both of
whom were influenced by Milton Erikson
 Other prominent practitioners and theorists-
Michele Weiner-Davis and Insoo Kim Berg.

6. View of Human Nature
 does not have a comprehensive view regarding human
nature
 focuses on client health and strength(Fernando,2007).
 tracks roots to work of Milton Erickson
 People have within themselves resources and abilities to
solve their own problems
 Erickson- also “believed that a small change in behavior is
all that is necessary to lead to more profound changes in
problem context” (Lawson,1994,p.244).
 People-constructivist in nature- reality is a reflection of
observation and experience
 Assumption- People really want to change and change is
inevitable

7. Role of the Counselor
 First role- determine how active and committed
a client is to process of change
 Clients usually fall in 3 categories-
1.visitors, not involved in the problem and not
a part of solution
2.complainants,complain about situation but
can be observant and describe problems
3.customers,able to describe problems and
how they are involved in them , willing to work
on finding solutions (Fleming & Rickord,
1997)

8.  to help clients “access the resources and
strengths they already have but not aware of
or are not utilizing” (Cleveland & Lindsay,
1995 ,p.145)
 encourage, challenge and set up expectations
for change
 do not blame or ask “why?”
 concerned in working together with client to
arrive at a solution
 allow client to be the expert on his or her life
(Helwig,2002).

9. Goals
 Major goal- to help clients tap inner resources
and to notice exceptions to the times when
they are distressed.
 to direct them toward solutions to situations
that already exist in these exceptions.
 Focus of sessions and homework – positives
and possibilities either now or in the future.

10. Techniques
 Collaborative process between the
counselor and client.
 encouraging to examine exceptions to times
when there are problems
 several other techniques are also commonly
used.

11.  Miracle question- a hypothetical situation
where a problem has disappeared.

12.  Scaling-the client is asked to use a scale of
1(low) to 10(high) to evaluate how severe
the problem is. It helps where they are and
where they need to move.
 To give clients compliments- written
messages designed to praise clients for their
strengths and build a “yes set” within them.
 given right before clients are given tasks or
assignments.

13.  Two final techniques-
1.clues- to alert clients to the idea that some
behaviors they are doing now are likely to
continue and they should not worry about
them.
2.skeleton keys- procedures that have worked
before and that have universal applications

14. Strengths and Contributions
 emphasizes brevity and its empowerment of
client families. (Fleming and Rikord,1997)
 displays flexibility and excellent research in
support of its effectiveness.
 positive nature in working with a variety of clients
in various settings. (Murphy,2008 ;
Patterson,2009)
 focuses on change and its premise that
emphasizes small change in behaviors.
 can be combined with other counseling
approaches such as existentialism.
(Fernando,2007)

15. Limitations
 Almost no attention to client history
 A lack of focus on insight
 uses teams, at least by some practitioners,
making the cost high.

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