Te Whatu Ora Northland — Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drugs Service
Solution Focused Brief Therapy training
Last updated 5 PM, 10 November 2025
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Solution-Focused Brief Therapy — Additional resources
This page contains additional resources following the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy training.
Click on each button to download the PDF file (you may need to right-click and choose "save file"). By clicking on any of the download links, you are agreeing that you will not distribute or share the documents.
Additional notes from Michael's presentation DOWNLOAD PDF
Beginnings — a chapter from Michael's book DOWNLOAD PDF
At your best — a paper from our colleagues at BRIEF in London about the use of description DOWNLOAD PDF
Focused description development — the "theoretical" paper by my colleagues in London about the use of extensive description of the preferred future DOWNLOAD PDF
A blog post by Michael on the experience of being a Solution Focused client LINK
Article by Chris Iveson, from London, about SFBT in adult psychiatry DOWNLOAD PDF
Paper about using Solution-Focused with a psychotic client DOWNLOAD PDF
The paper by Frances Huber and Michael Durrant about clients' experiences of "the break" and the "end-of-session summary" DOWNLOAD PDF
Paper by Frank Thomas on compliments in SFBT DOWNLOAD PDF
Webinar (on YouTube) by Haesun Moon discussing Solution Focused use of language LINK
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Different thoughts about using Solution-Focused ideas
Link to an online post by Evan George about the question "How does that make you feel?" LINK
Link to a blog post from Michael that reflects on the use of the question "How did you do that?" (Note: This blog post is about working with the effects of trauma. However, the main point is about the power of the question "How did you do that?".) LINK
Link to an interview with David Hains, mental health nurse, about using Solution Focused ideas in the Emergency Department LINK
Solution Focused conversations with suicidal people
20 good reasons to use SFBT in suicide prevention (Heather Fiske) — DOWNLOAD
A few key ideas in SF suicide prevention (Heather Fiske) — DOWNLOAD
What is helpful in Solution Focused conversations about suicide (One-page summary) (Heather Fiske) — DOWNLOAD
Examples of Solution Focused questions to use in conversations about suicide (Michael Durrant) — DOWNLOAD PDF
Examples of Solution Focused questions in crisis telephone counselling (Michael Durrant) — DOWNLOAD PDF
Adolescent mental health
Paper by Banks on Solution Focused groups with adolescent "bullies" — DOWNLOAD PDF
Paper by Wheeler on Solution Focused Brief Therapy and Adolescent Mental Health — DOWNLOAD PDF
Paper by Stacey et al looking at longer term outcomes of a Brief Therapy project within CAMHS — DOWNLOAD PDF
Paper by Dielman on Solution Focused therapy with adolescents with ADHD — DOWNLOAD PDF
Articles related to alcohol and other drugs
de Shazer & Isebeart — The Bruges model: A Solution Focused approach to problem drinking DOWNLOAD PDF
Lewis — Solution Focused therapy and Motivational interviewing DOWNLOAD PDF
McCollum — Solution Focused group therapy for substance abuse DOWNLOAD PDF
Nelle — Solution and resource-oriented addiction treatment with the choices of abstinence or controlled drinking DOWNLOAD PDF
Pichot — Co-creating solutions for substance abuse DOWNLOAD PDF
Smock — Solution Focused group therapy for level 1 substance abusers DOWNLOAD PDF
Solution Focused groups
Paper by Banks on Solution Focused groups with adolescent "bullies" — DOWNLOAD PDF
Froerer — Solution Focused groups with people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS DOWNLOAD PDF
McCollum — Solution Focused Group Therapy for Substance Abuse DOWNLOAD PDF
Hardenberg — Solution Focused group work in mental health DOWNLOAD PDF
Research on SFBT
There is now a comprehensive, searchable database of SFBT research HERE .
Books
Ratner, H., George, E. & Iveson, C. (2012). Solution Focused Brief Therapy: 100 key points & techniques. London: Routledge. AVAILABLE HERE
Shennan, G. (2014). Solution-Focused practice: Effective communication to facilitate change. London: PalgraveMacmillan. AVAILABLE HERE
Recommended book about working with suicide. Fiske, Heather (2008) Hope in action: Solution-Focused conversations about suicide. New York: Routledge. Available as an E-book on Amazon for Kindle HERE
Michael's new book
Michael's book, Solution Focused practice: How do you do that? has been published. Details and orders HERE.
Australasian Solution Focused Association
Link to web site HERE
The new page for the Journal of Solution Focused Practices is HERE
PRACTICE ISSUES
Things clients say — and how we might respond
“I need to understand why I’m drinking”.
Okay. My experience is that there are LOTS of reasons why people keep drinking too much, and it is not always easy to figure out exactly why a particular person keeps drinking too much. It MIGHT be related to something that happened earlier in your life … or it might not. It MIGHT be related to particular stresses in your life … or it might not. So, you’re thinking that you need to understand why you keep drinking in order to be able to stop. As I said, I’m not sure how easy it is to figure out exactly why you keep drinking; but I’m interested that you seem really clear that you want to stop. How come?
How are you hoping that stopping drinking will make a difference?
“The doctor told me that you’d be able to give me some tips and strategies to stop drinking/be less depressed/cope better”
Okay, and I’m very happy to tell you some of the things that some others of my clients have said worked for them. But I’m interested that you’re wanting some strategies to stop drinking/be less depressed/cope better. How come?
So, you’ve already decided you should be different. How did you make that decision?
Before we discuss particular strategies, how are you hoping that stopping drinking/being less depressed/feeling better will make a difference? (Get AS MUCH DETAIL as possible. Lots of, “How else will that make a difference?” and, “What will your wife notice?” questions.)
Then, you might go on and discuss/suggest strategies, but do it tentatively and ask lots of, “How do you think that would make a difference for you?”
“I need you to tell me how to cope with the cravings”
Okay, and I’m happy to tell you some of the things that other people have told me helped them cope with the cravings. But, before we do that, what are some of the things that you have done to cope with the cravings — even just a little bit?
Writing notes in a Solution Focused way
When I worked in a large public hospital, I would write notes in patients’ medical record. I would use subheadings:
- Problem that lead to the patient attending
- How they would know that our service has been helpful
- Strengths, exceptions, resources
- The preferred future (how the patient would like her life to be)
- Scaling
I’m sure lots of other people thought these notes were stupid; however, that was not of great concern to me (there were lots of ways in which they thought I was stupid!).
Remember, they are called “Progress notes”, so you should expect to write about progress and not just about the problem.
How do we do an assessment in a Solution-Focused way?
Remember, from a “purist” Solution-Focused perspective, the fundamental assessment is “how does this person want things to be?”
However, you are required to assess various aspects of the problem (details of the depression/anxiety/drug or alcohol use, etc.)
Remember my example from the training about the inpatient detox program whose assessment was “how will the judge know when you don’t need to be here anymore?”
Second, third, fourth (etc) sessions
I read recently that Steve de Shazer once said that the single most important question in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is, "What's better?"
In subsequent sessions, we want to explore ANY difference or improvement and ask how they did that, how it made a difference, how it might make a difference in the future, etc. Be persistent with, "How did you do that?". "Was it hard or was it easy?" (If they say it was easy), "How did you make it easy? You've told me that you've struggled with drinking for years; so, this week. how did you manage to make it easy to stop?" (If they say it was hard), "So, how did you manage to stick at it?" "What were the challenges you faced in not using? How did you deal with those challenges?"
SFBT and AOD issues
We talked about how AOD isssues are what gets the client through the door; however, they do not determine the direction or the content of the session. Once you lnow how the client would like things to be, you are no longer an AOD counsellor; you are now a "preferred future" counsellor and AOD may or may not be relevant to0 what is talked about. The Solutio Focused process is driven by the client and how the client wants things to be different; NOT by what the therapist thinks should be the focus.
Motivational interviewing
I have added a paper on Solution Focused therapy and Motivational interviewing DOWNLOAD PDF
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