Using the answers you had all along.
Have you ever visited a website for therapy and there were a bunch of terms, definitions, or “types of therapy” listed but none of it made sense? We at Reclamation and Recovery Counseling believe that counseling shouldn’t be confusing. We aim to provide free education so you know exactly what you are getting into. As a disclaimer, while our clinicians are trained to provide the following approaches, it does not guarantee that each tool will be used in your session. If you have any questions, please feel free to Contact Us for your free consultation.
Solution Focused Therapy
The approach of Solution Focused Therapy is designed to lean on the belief that you as a person already have all of the tools needed to be successful in life. Some people believe that if you are coming to therapy, that must mean you are broken or weak. We at Reclamation and Recovery Counseling believe that is the furthest thing from the truth; we know you are capable, strong, and resilient.
In Solution Focused Therapy, we take a step back and examine all of the times in your life where you conquered challenges and overcame the adversities you faced. In these sessions, we work to reshape situations that appear negative on the surface and learn to look into how you were actually strong enough to handle them.
Strategies used in Solution Focused Therapy
Exception Questions: Exception questions are designed to uncover the “exceptions” to bad situations (how conveniently named!). For example, your counselor may ask something like, “can you tell about times where you were able to make your day better when it was bad?”. The purpose of questions like this provide you with opportunities to shift your thinking from how most things go wrong to how did I overcome a bad thing before?
Miracle Question: The miracle question is an imaginative way that your counselor can lead you into making new awarenesses about yourself. The question itself can be asked in a variety of different ways, but the most standard usually include a variation of the following, “I want you to imagine that tonight when you slept, all of your problems were solved. When you woke up, what would be different in your life to notice these changes?”. This gives you the opportunity to think outside of the box and give solutions to problems that sometimes feel impossible!
Scaling Questions: This straightforwardly named strategy grants the opportunity for you to learn about your own strength and potential as a person. In scaling, there are usually two questions that are asked back to back. The example is as follows: “On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, how would you rate your day?” and the follow up question after you answer is typically, “Okay, so how did you achieve a 5 instead of a 4?”. This step and looking at whatever number you achieved as an accomplishment demonstrates your resiliency in daily activities, even if you are not thinking about it.
Image provided by Whole Hearted School Counseling, demonstrating the shift from problem focused to solution focused.
