Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on solutions rather than problems. This course will give you everything you need to understand what SFBT is and how to use it.

What makes it different from other forms of counselling? It is solution-focused rather than problem-focused in that most of the time is spent talking about a client’s strengths, accomplishments (known as exceptions) and solutions to problems. This is in contrast to traditional psychotherapy that is problem-focused: all of the time is spent talking about problems. SFBT focuses on what the client can do rather than what they can’t.

Secondly, it’s brief. SFBT rejects the idea that psychotherapy needs to be many weeks of regular appointments. Instead, it proposes that we get to work helping clients straight away, working with the client’s agenda, and spacing sessions out more widely.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy can be applied to a wide range of problems including depression, anxiety, mental health, substance abuse, relationships and couples, and much more. We’ll look at what its founders, Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, said as well as more up-to-date research on the topic.

In the course, we will cover:

• What Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is and how it works

• Step-by-step how to do SFBT

• Solution-focused specific techniques

• Using the miracle question and scale questions

• Building a strong therapeutic relationship with clients

• Professional issues working in SFBT

We will use examples and exercises throughout the course to help you embed the knowledge. We’ll also look at a series of case studies to show you what SFBT looks like when applied to depression, problems at school and couples counselling. You’ll also receive a comprehensive handbook with the course.

On completing the course, you will earn a certificate accredited by the International Association of Therapists.