Rumor Has It
Before ever becoming a therapist, co-founder Steve de Shazer earned a living in the music industry playing this wind instrument in a jazz band.
What is a saxophone?
This married couple, along with their colleagues, spent countless hours observing a diverse mix of couples, families, and individual sessions behind a one-way mirror.
Who is Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg?
In SFBT, change is viewed not only as possible, but as unavoidable characteristic of life.
What is inevitable?
This classic SFBT question asks clients to imagine waking up to find that their problem has disappeared without their knowledge.
What is the Miracle Question?
SFBT is meant to be "brief" and usually only lasts 1-10 sessions and it is often acclaimed for being fast and saving clients a lot of this valuable resource.
What is money (accept time)?
Before switching to social work, Insoo Kim Berg came to the U.S. to study this medical science field all about prescription drugs and mixing medications. She later quit because she hated killing lab rats.
What is pharmacy?
While traditional therapies can last months to indefinite sessions, this is the typical numerical range of sessions that a client may spend with the therapist to achieve their goals.
What is 1-10 sessions?
Instead of reflecting on past problems, SFBT focuses on this specific time period to help clients meet their goals for tomorrow.
What is the future?
This SFBT strategy asks clients to use 1-10 measures to help clients assess strengths and solutions, set goals, design homework tasks, meausre progress, and manage crisis with safety plans.
What are Scaling Questions?
Critics argue that by focusing only on the present and future, SFBT makes the mistake of ignoring a client's past history and these specific types of deep psychological wounds.
What is trauma?
Steve and Insoo revolutionized therapy by putting this modern piece of technology behind a one-way mirror to record and dissect every single second of their sessions.
What is a video camera?
This foundational SFBT assumption states that clients already posses these tools/skills necessary to construct their own solutions.
What are strengths, resources, or coping skills?
If a client notices things getting better after booking an appointment and attending the first session, but before they even sit down for their first session, they are experiencing this type of change.
What is pre-session change?
These are specific examples in a client's life when the problem could have happened, but somehow did not, or was less serious.
What are exceptions (or exception times)?
Instead of forcing a "one-size-fits-all" theory, SFBT adapts to this broad mix of backgrounds, identities, and traditions.
What is diversity? (Accept culture, gender, or ethnicity)
Often confused with the developmental psychologist who created the "8 Stages of Life," this similarly named hypnotherapist heavily influenced SFBT by utilizing clients' natural strengths.
Who is Milton Erickson? (Accept: "Not Erik Erikson!")
In SFBT, the therapist is a collaborator, or guide because this person is viewed as the true expert on their own life.
Who is the client?
Rather than aiming for drastic changes all at once, SFBT helps clients focus on setting this type of small, realistic step that is easy to see and measure.
What is a GOAL.
This SFBT strategy is used by therapists to encourage self-hope, resilience, and motivation in their client. The client is asked to highlight instances currently or in the past when they managed to handle a difficult situation.
What are Coping Questions?
Because SFBT relies heavily on verbal techniques like the Miracle Question or complex scaling, it can be difficult to use with clients who have limited this skill, such as young children or non-verbal individuals.
What is language? (Accept talking or communication)
Steve de Shazer's famous paper "The Death of Resistance" was rejected this many times before being published—just one year short of the legal age to vote in Canada.
What is 17?
This foundational rule states that if something is already working well for the client, the therapist should tell them to do this.
What is keep doing it? (Accept do more of it)
Therapists give clients this type of take-home assignment at the end of a session to practice or observe what is working in their daily lives.
What is "homework tasks" or "observational tasks".
This intervention takes place at the end of a session, where the therapist uses these positive statements to highlight client strengths that relate to the problem, provide encouragement, and motivation.
What are Compliments?
Because SFBT focuses on quick, practical solutions, it works best for this specific type of immediate problem or sudden life emergency.
What is a crisis? (Accept short-term problems or situational issues)