1.
Brief Counseling
Approaches

2.
Introduction
 grown in scope and influence in recent years.
 Older systematic approaches like Mental
Research Institute(MRI)-approach to
strategic therapy in Palo Alto, California;
designed to be brief therapy.(Watzlawick,
Weakland,& Fisch,1974)
 Newer approaches- Solution focused
counseling and narrative therapy- explicitly
designed to be brief
 Important in age where people and institutions
are demanding quick and effective mental
health services. (Presbury, Echterling, &

3.
 Skills employed in these approaches important for-
counselors in managed care settings and in public
settings.
 characterized by both foci and time-limited
emphasis.
 Most brief counseling- not systematic in nature.
However, Strategic counseling is both systematic and
time limited.
 Techniques-concrete and goal oriented
 Counselors –active in helping foster change and in
bringing it about.
 Emphasis-identify solutions and resources
 Number of sessions limited to increase client focus
and motivation.

4.
Solution-Focused
Counseling

5.
Founders/Developers
 commonly known as Solution-focused brief
therapy(SFBT)
 midwestern phenomenon
 originated in its present form in the 1980s,by
Steve deShazer and Bill O’Hanlon, both of
whom were influenced by Milton Erikson
 Other prominent practitioners and theorists-
Michele Weiner-Davis and Insoo Kim Berg.

6.
View of Human Nature
 does not have a comprehensive view regarding human
nature
 focuses on client health and strength(Fernando,2007).
 tracks roots to work of Milton Erickson
 People have within themselves resources and abilities to
solve their own problems
 Erickson- also “believed that a small change in behavior is
all that is necessary to lead to more profound changes in
problem context” (Lawson,1994,p.244).
 People-constructivist in nature- reality is a reflection of
observation and experience
 Assumption- People really want to change and change is
inevitable

7.
Role of the Counselor
 First role- determine how active and committed
a client is to process of change
 Clients usually fall in 3 categories-
1.visitors, not involved in the problem and not
a part of solution
2.complainants,complain about situation but
can be observant and describe problems
3.customers,able to describe problems and
how they are involved in them , willing to work
on finding solutions (Fleming & Rickord,
1997)

8.
 to help clients “access the resources and
strengths they already have but not aware of
or are not utilizing” (Cleveland & Lindsay,
1995 ,p.145)
 encourage, challenge and set up expectations
for change
 do not blame or ask “why?”
 concerned in working together with client to
arrive at a solution
 allow client to be the expert on his or her life
(Helwig,2002).

9.
Goals
 Major goal- to help clients tap inner resources
and to notice exceptions to the times when
they are distressed.
 to direct them toward solutions to situations
that already exist in these exceptions.
 Focus of sessions and homework – positives
and possibilities either now or in the future.

10.
Techniques
 Collaborative process between the
counselor and client.
 encouraging to examine exceptions to times
when there are problems
 several other techniques are also commonly
used.

11.
 Miracle question- a hypothetical situation
where a problem has disappeared.

12.
 Scaling-the client is asked to use a scale of
1(low) to 10(high) to evaluate how severe
the problem is. It helps where they are and
where they need to move.
 To give clients compliments- written
messages designed to praise clients for their
strengths and build a “yes set” within them.
 given right before clients are given tasks or
assignments.

13.
 Two final techniques-
1.clues- to alert clients to the idea that some
behaviors they are doing now are likely to
continue and they should not worry about
them.
2.skeleton keys- procedures that have worked
before and that have universal applications

14.
Strengths and Contributions
 emphasizes brevity and its empowerment of
client families. (Fleming and Rikord,1997)
 displays flexibility and excellent research in
support of its effectiveness.
 positive nature in working with a variety of clients
in various settings. (Murphy,2008 ;
Patterson,2009)
 focuses on change and its premise that
emphasizes small change in behaviors.
 can be combined with other counseling
approaches such as existentialism.
(Fernando,2007)

15.
Limitations
 Almost no attention to client history
 A lack of focus on insight
 uses teams, at least by some practitioners,
making the cost high.

16.
THANK YOU !