The Strengths Perspective and Solution-Focused Therapy

The Strengths Perspective as well as the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy developed as an alternative to the problem-solving and medical model, which placed the problem at the center of our attention. Focusing on the problem implies serious costs to the clients, since they would not be developing hope for the future or a sense of competence. It also implies a cost for the worker, who may not experience a sense contribution to the client’s growth and development.

Both approaches have similar underpinnings, “starting where the client is” (p.119), they focus on goals and solutions. There is an evident trust in what the clients express about their lives, especially about their hopes for the future. This way, “both strengths and solution-focused work intentionally create a partnership designed to explore in detail the shape of a person’s life beyond the problem.” (p. 119). However, these approaches have some differences. The main differences are related to the scope of resources tapped into and the degree of acknowledgment of the problem.

The Strengths Perspective has a clear focus on human potential, strengths, capacity, and aspirations. It has conveyed a vision and vocabulary of human qualities directed to human change. Solution-focused therapy has contributed with valuable tools, such as the development of questions directed to what is possible (instead of what has failed). In this way, both emphasize the human capacity for growth and change, they honor the resources people develop through challenges, and both recognize the crucial role of hope in the process of change.

In short, as Weick, Kreider, and Chamberlain (2006) assert:

When one considers the generative resources that exist both within and around people, the focus on strengths becomes a strategic way to keep visible the profession’s mission and practice wisdom. When this large view is supported by the practicality of solution-focused questions, it becomes possible to imagine new implications for the merger of strengths and solutions (p. 125)

Reference

Weick, A., Kreider, J. W., & Chamberlain, R. (2006). Solving problems from a Strengths Perspective. In D. Saleebey (Ed.), The Strengths Perspective in social work practice (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Books

Barry, L. D., Hubble, M. A., & Miller, S. D. (1997). Psychotherapy with "Impossible" Cases. The efficient treatment of therapy veterans. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Duncan, B. L., & Miller, S. D. (2000). The heroic client. Doing client-directed, outcome informed therapy. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Hubble, M. A., Duncan, B. L., & Miller, S. D. (2002). The heart and soul of change. What works in therapy. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Walter, J. L., & Peller, J. E. (1992). Becoming solution-focused in brief therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel Publishers.

Book Chapters

Chapin, R., Nelson-Becker, H., & MacMillan, K. (2006). Strengths-based and solution-focused approaches to practice with older adults. In B. Berkman & S. D'Ambruoso (Eds.), Oxford handbook of social work, health, and aging. USA: Oxford Press.

Kreider, J. W. (1998). Solution-focused ideas for briefer therapy with longer-term clients. In M. Hoyt (Ed.), The handbook of constructive therapies. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Weick, A., & Chamberlain, R. (2002). Putting problems in their place: Further explorations in the Strengths Perspective. . In D. Saleebey (Ed.), The Strengths Perspective in social work practice (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Weick, A., Kreider, J. W., & Chamberlain, R. (2006). Solving problems from a Strengths Perspective. In D. Saleebey (Ed.), The Strengths Perspective in social work practice (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Articles

Berg, I. K., & De Jong, P. (1996). Solution-building conversations: Co-constructing a sense of competence with clients. Families in Society, 77(6), 376.

De Jong, P., & Miller, S. D. (1995). How to interview for client strengths. Social Work, 40(6), 729.

Greene, G. J., Kondrat, D. C., Lee, M. Y., Clement, J., & al., e. (2006). A solution-focused approach to case management and recovery with consumers who have a severe mental disability. Families in Society, 87(3), 339.

Lee, M. Y. (2003). A solution-focused approach to cross-cultural clinical social work practice: Utilizing cultural strengths. Families in Society, 84(3), 385.

Links

Brief family therapy center (Insoo Kim Berg)

Quote

"By suggesting an alternative ‘at promise’ view [as opposed to the at risk paradigm], I have attempted to convey the importance of considering the possibilities in all children and the promise of partnerships with parents and community members of diverse backgrounds….By viewing parents and children as ‘at promise’ we enhance the possibilities of constructing authentic relations where we actively listen to and learn from one another.”

Beth Blue Swadener, Children and Families “at Promise”: Deconstructing the Discourse of Risk. In Children and families “at promise”. Swadener and Sally Lubeck, 1995, p.42.