discuss the assumptions, goals and the process of solution focused counseling. Discuss the assumptions, goals and the process of solution focused counseling.
Answers
Beginning with de Shazer's (1982) Patterns of Brief Family Therapy, authors and trainers within Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) have purposefully articulated many assumptions of this approach to therapy. Although any list that one generates is transitory, keeping one's conscious assumptions public has allowed SFBT to track change and openly discuss similarities and differences. As a whole, SFBT seems to value exactness and transparency; that is, a clear statement of your guiding ideas ties you to a body of people and a tradition while simultaneously encouraging accountability. It is not as though everyone coupled to SFBT believes the same things about change, therapy, or human nature. We are a composting of Erickson, Bateson, and Wittgenstein, de Shazer and Berg, fertile humus that has sustained growth for over 30 years. The result is a continually expanding and contracting list of presuppositions, some unique to particular authors, and some durable that continue to withstand the test of time. We have whittled down a fairly comprehensive list from SFBT publications and attempted to organize these assumptions within two categories: (a) philosophy, posture, or stance (clinical thinking), and (b) conceptual/practical (what we say we do). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)