Problem-Solving Brief Therapy is more than a model of therapy: it teaches practitioners to look at the world from a different point of view: how to change solutions that have unwittingly maintained the current problem
The model of Problem-Solving Brief Therapy® is a form of looking at the challenges in life and coming up with strategies on how to change the situation.
The seeds of the model were planted in Palo Alto, CA in the late 1950s at the Mental Research Institute (MRI). There, the model was tested and developed under the direction of it’s founders; Dick Fisch, Paul Watzlawick, John Weakland, Gregory Bateson, Jay Haley and, in Arizona, Milton Erickson. All this under the direction of Don Jackson
Throughout its history, the Problem-Solving Model revolutionized the world of therapy. It can be applied to a varied cross section of presenting problems in therapy because it prioritizes the problem the client ,is concerned with, rather than searching for explanations and providing DSM5 diagnosis.
When a client,initiates a process with a call, it’s because they feel something wrong and they want a change. The Problem-Solving Model encourages the therapist to look at the here and now, identify what is the minimal change necessary to start a virtuous cycle in their lives. Based on this information we look at Attempted Solutions, actions by the client to unwittingly perpetuate these negative results. Together, the client and therapist look to the future to develop strategies t to break the negative cycle and achieve sustainable positive change.
Because the Problem-Solving Model looks at the interactional patterns that don’t work the model is applicable in psychotherapy, business settings, and all situations. Our role as professionals trained in the model is to give the client the necessary tools to take control of their own life.
