Solution-focused brief therapy and social work

Abstract

Introduction: Solution-focused brief therapy, which has a history of more than forty years, is based on the perspective that the client already has enough resources to solve their problems. The main goal of the professionals who prefer this therapy method is to give clients a perspective to awareness these resources they already have and to help them use them. Therefore, it is an approach that is not therapist-centered, but focuses on the client and client’s wishes. Method: Therefore, in this study, which has the feature of compilation, the solutionfocused brief therapy approach and some of the basic techniques it uses, as well as its use in the field of social work, will be revealed in the light of researches. Results: This therapy method, which is known to be used in working with children and adolescents, working with adults, family and couple therapy, can be worked with individuals and groups. In this approach, techniques such as miracle and scaling questions, exploring exceptions, positive feedback and compliments, tasks between sessions are used. One of the usage areas of the approach is the field of social work. Conclusion: The solution-focused brief therapy's focus on solutions, its client-based nature, and the emphasis that the client already has enough resources seem to be compatible with the nature of the social work profession. Therefore, this approach is suitable for the nature of social work. And considering the workload intensity of social workers, it is thought that it will provide an advantage in social work practice due to its short duration. Recommendations: It is considered that solution-focused brief therapy is suitable for use in interventions by social workers due to its time advantage and conformity with the nature of social work, and that researchers can strengthen the evidence base of solution-focused brief therapy-based social work interventions with output studies.