Solution Focused Therapy

Solution focused (brief) therapy (SFBT) is a goal-directed collaborative approach to therapy that uses direct observation of clients' responses to a series of precisely constructed questions.  SFBT focuses on addressing what clients want to achieve by exploring the history of the problems. SFBT sessions typically focus on the present and future, focusing on the past only to the degree necessary for communicating empathy and accurate understanding of the client's concerns.
The focus in SFBT is on identifying the client's goals, generating a detailed description of what life will be like when the goal is accomplished and the problem is either gone or managed satisfactorily. To develop effective solutions, therapists search diligently through the client's life experiences for "exceptions" (i.e. times when some aspect of the client's goal was already happening to some degree) then using these exceptions to create uniquely appropriate and effective solutions.