child and adolescent counseling chapter 10

Chapter 10

Brief Counseling
If you want truly to understand something, try
to change it.
Kurt Lewin
© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A


Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able
to:
• Outline the development of solution-focused
counseling
• Explain the theory of solution-focused counseling
• Discuss the counseling relationship and goals in
solution-focused counseling
• Describe assessment, process, and techniques in
solution-focused counseling
• Demonstrate some therapeutic techniques
© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A


Beliefs
• Even when people are not doing well, pieces of solutions
are happening
• Find out what the client is doing that works
• Those things become the building blocks of therapy
• Talking about positive parts of the client’s life builds
self-worth, creates optimism, and begins a change
process that starts with existing strengths and resources

© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A


SOLUTION-FOCUSED BRIEF
COUNSELING (SFBC)
Nature of People
• People are free to make choices and are not
victims of their genetics or environment.
• People are basically good.
• People are basically rational.
• People respond better to a present and future
counseling orientation.
• People have the ability to work through their own
problems.
© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A


Bruce’s Components of
SFBC
• Develop a working alliance to attack the problem.
• Identify clients’ strengths as a foundation for
confidence in their abilities to make positive
changes.
• Implement active, eclectic counseling strategies
and interventions.
• Establish clear, concrete, measurable goals in
order to evaluate progress.
© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Bruce’s SFBC Intervention
Tasks
• “Do something different.”
• “Pay attention to what you do when you overcome the
urge to …..” for the client who has trouble controlling
impulsive behaviors.
• “Tell me about a time when you had a good day at
____ ” for clients who have taken on the victim
mentality of believing that nothing good ever happens
to them.
• “Observe and take notes” for clients who have trouble
avoiding problem situations and interactions.
© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A


Counseling Method
• Orientation: Clarify the SFBC counseling process.
• Setting Goals: heart of counseling including statement
of the problem:
o The problem.
o The feelings associated with the problem.
o The intensity of those feelings on a 1 to 10 scale.
o The client’s expectations of what the client would like to
have happen in counseling and the goals the client would
like to accomplish.
• Active Listening
• Scaling: “Where are you on a scale of 1 to 10?”
• Working with positive and negative goals.
© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A

Setting Counseling Goals
• Goals owned or set by the client work best.
• If clients need assistance, be sure goals are
co-created.
• Set goals that are behaviorally oriented.
• Goals work best when they are positive,
concrete, and reduced to small steps.
• State a goal in terms of what behavior will
occur, how often it will occur, and under what
conditions it will occur.
© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A


Counseling Method
• Miracle question: “Should a miracle occur this
evening while you were sleeping and when you woke
up, you suddenly realized that your problems were
solved, what would you be doing that would indicate
to you that the miracle had actually taken place?”
• Relationship questions: “What will your _____ say
that will be different after the miracle?”
• Asking and reinforcing exceptions to the problem
solution.
• Using positive blame.
© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A


Counseling Method

• Scaling progress toward the goal.
• Asking for 10% improvement
• Flagging the minefield: “What things might prevent you
from moving up 10% on the scale or what might
sabotage your plan?”
• Closing the session.
• Writing the note: Write the client a message with at least
3 compliments and a bridging statement from each
compliment to one of the tasks the client needs to
accomplish to raise the scale score 10% or one level
from a 4 to a 5.

© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A


Five Question Method
1. Ask “How do you experience the problem?”
2. Ask “When do (or did) you not experience
the problem? What were you doing then?
3. Have clients rate their current progress on
solving the problem on the 0 to 10 scale.
4. Ask the miracle question.
5. Set goals based on increasing what works
for the client.
© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A


Benefits of SFBC
• Wide appeal among cultures and clients who
emphasize individual responsibility over family

and community.
• The approach has much to offer counselors who
are working under the constraints of managed
health care and who are working with large client
loads.
• Methods of SFBC are not easy to master.

© 2011 Brooks/Cole, A