Solution-Focused Therapy
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Solution-Focused Therapy Origin
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), also called Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) was developed by Steve de Shazer (1940-2005), and Insoo Kim Berg (1934-2007) in collaboration with their colleagues at the Milwaukee Brief Family Therapy Center beginning in the late 1970s. As the name suggests, SFBT is future-focused, goal-directed, and focuses on solutions, rather than on the problems that brought clients to seek therapy.
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What is Solution-Focused Brief Therapy?
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a short-term goal-focused evidence-based therapeutic approach, which incorporates positive psychology principles and practices, and which helps clients change by constructing solutions rather than focusing on problems. In the most basic sense, SFBT is a hope friendly, positive emotion eliciting, future-oriented vehicle for formulating, motivating, achieving, and sustaining desired behavioral change.
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How does Solution-Focused Therapy Work?
Solution-Focused practitioners develop solutions by first generating a detailed description of how the client’s life will be different when the problem is gone or their situation improved to a degree satisfactory to the client. Therapist and client then carefully search through the client’s life experience and behavioral repertoire to discover the necessary resources needed to co-construct a practical and sustainable solution that the client can readily implement. Typically this process involves identifying and exploring previous “exceptions,” e.g. times when the client has successfully coped with or addressed previous difficulties and challenges. In an inherently respectful and practical interview process, SF therapists and their clients consistently collaborate in identifying goals reflective of clients’ best hopes and developing satisfying solutions.
EMDR Trauma Therapy
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal.
EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.
Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.
More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions.
There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense. Given the worldwide recognition as an effective treatment of trauma, you can easily see how EMDR therapy would be effective in treating the “everyday” memories that are the reason people have low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, and all the myriad problems that bring them in for therapy. Over 100,000 clinicians throughout the world use the therapy. Millions of people have been treated successfully over the past 33 years.
Crisis Counseling
The American Counseling Association states that the primary purpose of crisis counseling is to help a person regain their sense of control and restore a normal state of functioning after experiencing a crisis. For our purposes, a crisis refers to any event where balance is disrupted. Typically, crisis counseling is a more direct, solution-focused, and short-term form of counseling. Counseling is beneficial because often individuals become overwhelmed emotionally and have difficulty with problem solving and coping skills. The American Counseling Association states that experiencing a crisis often causes an individual’s basic beliefs about themselves, others, and the world to be violated – crisis counseling helps address this by providing a safe space.
GOAL
What is the Goal of Crisis Counseling?
The goal of crisis counseling is for the counselor to provide emotional support and assistance for the individual in crisis. Crisis intervention is focused on minimizing the stress of the event, providing emotional support, and improving the person’s coping strategies. Unlike long-term therapeutic interventions, crisis counseling is more direct and focused on providing solutions that will help solve the crisis first. Long-term counseling involves providing long-term solutions and steps to achieve balance over a period of time. Like most forms of therapy, crisis counseling will provide specific goals, assessments, and treatment – but these will be more specific to the crisis experienced. Studies have shown that counseling can result in significant improvements in a person’s psychological well-being, including improvements in depression, anxiety, and stress.
ELEMENTS
What are the Elements of Crisis Counseling?
Assess The Situation – This step involves the counselor listening to the client, asking questions, and determining what the client needs for support.
Educate – Those dealing with a crisis often seek information about their current condition and steps they can take to navigate through the situation. A counselor will help address these concerns.
Offer Support – Perhaps the most important element is offering support. A counselor provides a safe space for receiving support, stabilization, and resources.
Develop Coping Skills – Along with providing support, a counselor will assist the client in developing coping skills to help with the current crisis and future situations.
HELP
What if I am Currently Experiencing a Crisis?
If you are currently experiencing a crisis, there are several resources available to you. These include:
The National Suicide Prevention Line (1-800-273-8255): The National Suicide Prevention Line is available 24/7 to anyone within a crisis, and includes options for veterans, Spanish speakers, and those deaf and hard of hearing. This line also has a disaster distress helpline.
Crisis Text Hotline (Text “HOME” to 741741): The Crisis Text Hotline connects you via text to a crisis counselor ready to support, listen, and help you regulate and calm yourself during a crisis.
2-1-1: Simply call 2-1-1 for help with emergencies and disasters, crisis, food needs, health, housing and utilities, human trafficking, jobs & employment, reentry, and veterans’ resources.
In addition to crisis counseling, Mountain West Mental Health & Wellness offers ongoing counseling sessions to help improve mood, supply you with the coping skills to manage distressing emotions, and help provide you with tools for the prevention and management of future crises. At Mountain West Mental Health & Wellness, we serve as a safe space to assist you in your emotional needs, and provide support, reassurance, and resources in times of crisis. If you are looking for counseling in the Cache Valley area please contact us today at (480) 800-9157 or at Kari@mtnwestcounseling.com.