Solution Focused Model

The Solution-Focused model, founded by Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg is about being brief and focusing on solutions, rather than on problems. When there is a problem, many professionals spend a great deal of time thinking, talking, and analyzing the problems, while the suffering goes on. They discovered that problems do not happen all the time. By studying these times when problems are less severe or even absent,  they discovered that people do many positive things that they are not fully aware of. By bringing these small successes into their awareness and repeating the successful things they do when the problem is less severe, people improve their lives and become more confident about themselves.

Since then, these psychological principles have been applied to a wide range of fields, from mental health to organisational change. The solution focused approach highlights the client’s skills, strengths and positive qualities and helps them adopt an alternative perspective on their future. Using this approach to engage clients in a more realistic and optimistic perspective, it can help them be aware of their successes, both past and present.

The Solution-Focused approach aims to help individuals, teams and organisations to break out of vicious problem-cycles and develop constructive solutions.

We do this by:

  • Asking questions, rather than prescribing answers
  • Listening for evidence of the strengths, resources and competence of our clients.
  • Working with what people want to do instead of what they don’t want
  • Looing for exceptions when people managed to handle a challenging situation
  • Finding out what people are already doing well and amplify their successful strategies
  • Focusing on the solutions (future) not the problems (present)
  • Developing small steps action plans which is achievable

Major Tenets of Solution-Focused Coaching

  • If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it
  • If it works, do more of it.
  • If its not working, do something different
  • Small steps can lead to big changes.
  • The solution is not necessarily related to the problem.
  • The language for solution development is different from that needed to describe a problem.
  • No problem happens all the time; there is always an exception.
  • The future is both created and negotiable.