Denver Center for Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

19/07/2025

This past week, we completed the in-person portion of our annual Summer Intensive. Next week we begin the online days The Summer Intensive is one of my favorite events, as people from around the world come together to explore Solution-Focused Practice more in-depth in a live, small group format. This year has been no exception.

One of the themes that kept coming up this past week was the importance of setting aside everything. . . the problem, our assumptions, even the actual interventions themselves . . . and just be with the amazing human being in front of us. This is the heart of the model.

18/07/2025

Solution-Focused Challenge!

I once had a staff member on my team, who really struggled with the idea of not having a clear agenda and plan when walking into a client session. I could see the anxiety begin to form each time I gently challenged his idea that a pre-set topic or course of action for his group or session was truly in line with Solution-Focused Thinking. There can be comfort with knowing what to do or what to say. Setting this aside requires trust in one’s own skill set and in the process.

With time and coaching, he learned to go into sessions with just a clear understanding of how to use Solution-Focused Practice, a clipboard with blank paper, and pens. Entering the sessions with these basic tools allowed him to feel prepared, and yet the blank paper symbolized that “not knowing stance” that is at the heart of Solution-Focused Practice.

We truly have no idea what will be helpful to the client, what direction the client wants to go, or what to ask until we sit down each time. As Steve de Shazer famously used to say, “Trust the process.”

14/07/2025

This is the Solution-Focused stance. We never know how long we have. We just have this moment to make a difference.

12/07/2025

A central concept of Solution-Focused Practice is that small steps lead to big changes. Such an important idea. However, this fact is in everyday life in ways you might not have noticed. For example, did you know that if a pilot takes off from Los Angeles headed for Washington DC and is only 3.5 degrees off, they will land in New York instead? Small changes matter.

08/07/2025

26/06/2025

Today we bury my father. In truth, he died emotionally years ago and welcomed death. Having a meaningful relationship with him was not possible without losing myself. It was always a complicated relationship, and his death leaves me with mixed emotions. Throughout my life my family left me wishing for what I saw in others and knew mine could never offer. My father was a catalyst for me becoming a therapist.

We don’t get to choose our parents, and life is about learning how to make the most of what we are given. It’s about being able to look back and be proud of how we handled our circumstances. My recent time with my father has given me the opportunity to learn to better accept people for who they are. Not everyone wants or can change. Some people simply chose to remain stuck in the past. That is their right. While these people are rarely seen in a therapist’s office, this is a hard but crucial reminder.

Being Solution-Focused means learning to accept that people have a right to decisions they make even when we think they can or should do better. Being Solution-Focused isn’t about dreaming for what we wish, but instead exploring how we create a good life despite our circumstances; even when those aren’t what is ideal, fair or even just.

Sometimes the focus simply has to switch to acceptance of what is and moving forward. There’s a peace that comes from this.

13/06/2025

Solution-Focused Challenge!

As Solution-Focused professionals, we tend to get really curious about exceptions. The more clients understand their role in these exceptions, the more clients will be empowered to recreate them should this be something they would find helpful. While I don’t encourage professionals to “dig” for exceptions (this would be expert-based), I do encourage them to “listen” for them and get curious about them since clients naturally offer them in every conversation.

I often get the question, “What do I do when the client doesn’t know what they did to create the exception?” I answer by explaining there are two kinds of exceptions. First, Intentional Exceptions. These are ones in which the client did something to create the change and can clearly identify their part in the desired outcome.

The second are Random Exceptions. These are ones that occur in which the client is unclear and unable to identify any connection to anything they might have done despite our questions. These are the ideal opportunities to turn these random exceptions into noticing suggestions to help the client to begin to discover what they might have done that bettered the odds of the exception occurring.

For example, if the client is unsure why they are able to sleep better on some nights than others, I might end the session by saying, “I wonder what is making the difference. . . Maybe notice on those nights that you do sleep better. . . What might you have done that made a different? . . .” By doing this, I’m inviting the client to begin to pay attention to times of success . . . if it is helpful. This helps to turn these random exceptions into intentional exceptions.

For this week’s Solution-Focused Challenge, note random exceptions in your own life. Start paying attention to what you might be doing that is bettering the odds of these exceptions occurring. Watch as these random exceptions become intentional.

29/05/2025

Solution-Focused Challenge!

I’ve heard it said that if you want to know someone’s true character, look at how the person behaves when they think no one is looking. There is a lot of focus in the community on compassion and being kind. It is easy to be compassionate and kind to those who we like, those who think similarly, or those who hold our same worldviews. The challenge is to learn to be compassionate to those who are not in these categories.

Some level of dehumanizing others is necessary in order to be unkind, to be cruel, or to be violent. One must separate oneself from the victim’s emotions or pain. Most of us cannot fathom treating people in this way. However, in reality, this dehumanizing process can start in the most innocent way. Labels or unkind names.

In Solution-Focused practice we work hard not to use labels, diagnoses, or other general categories, for we know that they are not only oftentimes not accurate, but they also negatively serve to distance us from the human being. It is only through seeing each and every human being that we can truly make a meaningful difference.

Unfortunately, if we are not mindful, we can slip into this same unhelpful labeling and name calling in our personal lives. How easy it can be to refer to someone who thinks or believes differently from us as “stupid” or an “idiot.” While it might see harmless in the moment, it is the beginning of the dehumanizing and distancing process.

Insoo Kim Berg once said, “The Solution-Focused Model is very simple but hard to do, not because it’s complicated or difficult to learn, but because it requires a disciplined mind-set and skill to remain that simple.” One of the most difficult elements to maintain is that discipline of learning to catch and correct when we slip into judgement, labeling, and dehumanizing those around us. The best way to practice and develop this level of discipline is in our personal lives. True discipline comes when we value and correct this when no one else would know we slipped into it.

For today’s Solution-Focused challenge, I invite you to bring this valuing seeing each human being into your personal life. Notice and gently correct yourself when you see judgement, labels, or even name calling slip in.

22/05/2025

Solution-Focused Challenge!

Confirmation bias is something that affects us all . . . that tendency to interpret or favor information in a way that confirms or supports our current beliefs and values. This means that once we have developed a negative opinion about a person, it can be incredibly difficult to set aside those beliefs to see what is actually true that is right in front of us. We see this concept with clients as well as others in our lives. This is why hearing negative information about someone from someone else can be so damaging. That information is being filtered through that person’s bias as well.

Solution-Focused Practice is a wonderful tool to help us overcome confirmation bias. It reminds us that history is not helpful in knowing what is true today and invites us to look at the human being in the current moment. It invites us to assume the best and to trust the person’s good reasons. While extremely difficult to do, it is this ability to assume the best about those around us that allows us to see the good that most likely was there all along.

For today’s Solution-Focused Challenge, practice assuming the good in those around you!

20/05/2025

At some point during many of my trainings, I am usually asked one particular question. It usually follows a demonstration of how to use Solution-Focused Brief Therapy in a particularly challenging client scenario . . . maybe with a client who is struggling with chronic or severe trauma, with addiction, with psychosis, with a personality disorder, who is perceived as being resistant in some way, etc. I always view this question as a compliment, since it is a sign that the training has been effective in helping the learner to break through their stereotypes and truly understand the power of this model when used in its purest form. The question goes like this, “Why aren’t more therapists using this model?”

I typically respond in one of two ways. First, I will explain that this model is not for everyone. There are many evidenced-based models. There is research out there that says that therapists must use a model that is a good fit for them in order for the model to be effective. This model requires that the therapist is comfortable not teaching skills, giving advice, etc. It requires that we stay in a curious stance, that we believe in those we are working with and that we lower the power differential between us and the client. This model is not for everyone.

Second, sometimes I explain that there is a financial explanation for how much professionals are exposed to various evidenced-based models. Models with more financial backing tend to be more heavily marketed and as the “best” model to use with a specific diagnosis. Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is a model of attraction. . . not promotion. Ironically, if we say SFBT is the best and only way, we are no longer in the Solution-Focused stance. This yes/and stance doesn’t make for good marketing.

So, I’m curious. . . For those who are using Solution-Focused Practice, how would you answer this question?