Solution Focused Brief Therapy Cambridge

Solution Focused Brief TherapyVery often Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is referred to as ‘Solution Focused Therapy’ or even much more simply as ‘Brief Therapy’. The term Brief Therapy as such may refer to both counselling and psychotherapy, in each case however with the aim of completing therapy within a much shorter time frame than the more traditional approaches to counselling.

Usually, clients seeking counselling or psychotherapy would expect to spend a minimum of 6 months with a therapist in order to achieve meaningful and lasting change. This is usually done by exploring the past as well as present and by analysing how events that took place in the past are influencing the way clients react today. Once this has been established, clients can then work on finding ways to heal and repair any damage they may have suffered in the past and to change their lives for the better. Patterns of behaviour that may have been ingrained over decades can be spotted and analysed.

Once clients understand why they react in certain ways, they can then, together with a therapist, work on how to change these reactions. A gross oversimplification of this process could be described as:

• Where am I now?

• How did I get here?

• Where do I want to be?

• How am I going to get there, considering where I came from?

Brief Therapy, on the other hand, does not focus on exploring the past or any underlying issues that may be affecting a client’s present. Instead, Brief Therapy focuses on what a client’s preferred future would look like. Together client and therapist then work on moving closer toward that preferred future. An oversimplified approach to Brief Therapy might be therefore be described as:

• Where do I want to be?

• What aspects of my life or myself are already there?

• What else do I need to do to get the rest of me there?

Clients who seek Brief Therapy usually do so because they need to achieve a certain goal quickly or change a specific behaviour within a limited time frame. Brief Therapy usually aims to draw to a close after 6, 12, or 18 sessions. This doesn’t mean that clients who seek Brief Therapy cannot continue to explore other aspects of their lives once they have achieved their goals. In fact, clients who have achieved their initial goal sometimes choose to then continue with a more traditional approach to psychotherapy in order to work on underlying issues, to learn more about themselves and to promote further personal growth.