Changing the Narrative of Solution Focused Brief Therapy

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It’s time to change the narrative around the Solution Focused Approach and how this way if working is viewed by our field. So, in this video I make a bold proclamation but I formally stand by it.

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So I know about to say something that may for some in our field be a bit controversial or trigger a lot of people comment and respond. And if you do like, feel free to comment below this video and feel free to comment on my Facebook page, send me an email. But I think what I want to get across today is I actually think that Solution Focused Brief Therapy is the best therapy approach and something that people in our field should be considering getting trained to do now more than ever before.

Now I wanna be clear. I’m not here to bash any other therapy. I’m not accusing people who do problem focus therapy of being bad. And I’m not here to say that other approaches don’t work or anything like that. But I think there were two major reasons why in the world we live in right now, that Solution Focused Brief Therapy is standing above all other approaches. And the first reason is because we’re now been forced to do distance therapy, tele-health, online

therapy, video therapy, phone therapy, but we’re no longer allowed to sit with our clients and do face the face types of therapy.

Which means the greatest resource we have in the therapy session is the client’s language, and the client’s words and Solution Focused Therapy,

more than any other approach, is reliant on the client’s words to do our job and to be effective.

Which means I’m just as likely to be effective sitting in my office working with a client as I am to be working with a client on the phone.

Like I think back to my Solution Focused or, I’m sorry, my problem focus training that I received when I first entered in the field,

and I was taught to ask client’s process questions and content question. And I was taught to assess the client, things like body language.

So for example, if the session was sitting like, if a client was sitting like this, I was taught to ask them things like,

“You appear to be closed off. Can you say something about that?” Or, “Has something that I said caused you to recluse?”

We were taught to ask questions like that, and that’s very much common in the world of problem focus therapy.

But when you’re doing a telephone session, for example, you can’t see that client response because all you have is the client’s words and in Solution Focused

Brief Therapy that’s where we do our best, like that’s where we do our magic. And I think now more than ever,

we have to be thinking about ways to optimize being effective in the setting in which we have. And I think Solution Focused

Brief Therapy is primed to do just that. The second reason why I think Solution Focused Brief Therapy is kind of standing above right now is, I was watching the news the other day and,

you know, this this kind of Covid stuff, it’s impacted me just like everybody else. Like, I’m stuck at home, wearing sweats, I told you I’m gonna be home.

I’m gonna be comfortable. So I’m wearing sweatsuits every day. So, I’m sitting at home in my sweatsuit watching TV, and I saw the news that 20 million people have filed for unemployment.

The economy is tanking, people are really financially struggling, and I think we have to be able to be as efficient as we possibly can,

in as few amount of sessions and Solution Focused Brief Therapy, across the board, there’s been researched supporting this approach.

And I think it is time that we start recognizing that efficiency is one of the best way we can show clients respect, because our resources are all being stretched incredibly thin and Solution.

Focused Brief Therapy is among, if not the most efficient approach, and you can impact the clients life very quickly.

So I think for those reasons, we have to start talking about Solution Focused Brief Therapy as a very viable,

credible, in fact, a stand above approach. I think, the reason I want to make this video is, what made me start making weekly videos, is watching people spread misinformation about Solution Focused Brief Therapy on YouTube and Facebook,

five years ago. But that’s, I’m seeing these things like, that’s not true. That’s not true.

I would see people saying things like Solution Focused Brief Therapy isn’t evidence based. That’s not true.

Solution Focused Brief Therapy is evidence based and has a significant research, body of work, supporting its efficacy,

right? So saying it’s not evidence based is not true. Or professors telling their students that Solution Focused Brief Therapy works really well with people who are highly intelligent,

but it doesn’t work with other people. That’s not true. Or saying that it works with, you know,

kind of real small problems, but for serious problems, you need in-depth therapy to achieve a goal.

Not true. And I think it’s important now to start making videos like this. And this is why I wanted to do this one.

Because I want to highlight to people. We’ve got to take approaches like this seriously. And we have to do that now more than ever,

because we’re in this unprecedented times where we’ve all been faced with. We have to figure out a way to be as efficient as possible while there are restrictions on the session that don’t allow us to sit in the same room with our clients and we have to be as efficient as possible with the time that clients will be able to participate in

therapy because, quite frankly, a lot of people cannot afford to attend therapy in a long term setting.

So I hope that you guys will understand that Solution Focused Brief Therapy is a credible approach, and if somebody has told you that it wasn’t. If somebody told you that it doesn’t work with serious problems or that is not evidence based

Show them this video. Tell them they’re wrong, or or even if you don’t, who cares what they think?

I want you to know that they, they’re wrong. That is not accurate. And it is time we take this approach seriously because there are clients out there that need it and think about this for a second.

Think about this for a moment. If you are living in a low income area and you are struggling with finances and your kids

school has just been closed and you don’t have WiFi at home because you can’t afford it. You don’t have an iPad or a laptop,

and the only thing you have is a phone. I want those people to know that they can still get effective

Psychotherapy and Solution Focused Brief Therapy is a type of approach that is designed to work in just this type of scenario.

So thank you guys so much for watching this video. I hope that it makes sense to you, and I hope that we can change the narrative about Solution Focused

Brief Therapy and kind of stand up and believe that this approach that works with people. So thank you for watching this video. ‘Like’, ‘Share’, ‘Subscribe’ to my YouTube channel.

Hit the bell so you get notifications and head on over to www.elliottconnie.com where I’ve got loads of material for you that you will enjoy and until the next video.

I’ll see you soon. Elbow bump!