Solution Focused Brief Therapy

What is Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)?

SFBT is a therapeutic approach that looks at the present and the goals each person sets to improve his/her future.

This approach was created by Steve de Shazer and the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee during the early 1980s. Among the concepts and tools that are the basis of the therapeutic intervention, we can remember the pre-session change technique, looking for exceptions to the problem, the enhancement of skills, the miracle question, the scaling questions and the tasks to be given between a session and the other one.

De Shazer’s SFBT adopts phenomenological and constructivist epistemology, which seeks to understand the meaning that people attribute to events and experiences.
The therapist abandons the role of expert and avoids providing interpretations, which often contribute to define the “problem” in terms that make it even more difficult to solve: in fact, only clients can be recognized as true experts of themselves. Diagnostic evaluations are also restructured in order to highlight the strengths of people, in a constructivist perspective oriented towards change and solution.

European Brief Therapy Association (EBTA)

Founded in 1993, EBTA is aimed at people interested in using the solution focused approach in various fields, in the context of the social and aid professions in Europe, in cooperation with other approaches, practices and research methods.

EBTA promotes, advocates and develops solution-focused theory, research and practice within psychotherapy, counseling, education and related areas of work as well as other professional contexts like rehabilitation, specialized fields of health and social care in Europe and beyond.

EBTA promotes dialogue with other solutions-focused actors and other approaches.

Fondazione Franceschi Onlus

Fondazione Franceschi Onlus is the official representative of the Solution Focused Brief Therapy in Italy and collaborates with EBTA through various initiatives aimed at making this approach known in our country.