what is solution-focused therapy?
What is Solution-Focused Therapy?
…and how you can use some solution-focused techniques to manage your mental health in your everyday life
Solution-Focused Therapy is a pretty new form of therapy, relatively speaking, having only been developed over the past 30 years. It’s fairly revolutionary in it’s approach because, unlike most other forms of traditional therapy or counselling, Solution-Focused Therapy is not focused on what’s happened in your past.
Instead, the Solution-Focused approach encourages the client to look at changes they want to make, and consider how they want their lives to be. Using this technique, we can retrain the brain away from old, unhelpful modes of thoughts and behaviour and towards new, more helpful, constructive ways of approaching life.
It certainly challenges the status quo doesn’t it?!
For the past 150 years, psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists have been honing various forms of therapy. As a result we have some amazingly helpful and insightful models of therapy which have helped thousands upon thousands of people with their mental health and well-being.
Historically, the general understanding has been that in order to help people manage their mental health issues, we must get them to identify the root cause of their problem in order to ‘work through it’. But in recent years, we have discovered that this is not necessarily the case.
The efficacy of brain-based therapies has been consistently improved over time. We have learned more about the human mind and mental health. That’s progress – and that’s exactly what we would expect when it comes to any form of treatment or therapy.
The crowning glory of Solution-Focused Therapy rests upon the fact that it’s based on the most up to date research in the field of neuroscience. And it’s this crucial understanding that leads us to realise that being Solution-Focused is in fact by far the healthiest, and quickest working, model for effective therapeutic treatment.
The neuroscience of mental health (don't worry, it's actually pretty simple, I promise!)
Some simple principles of neuroscience are integral to the process of Solution-Focused Therapy . As therapy progresses I explain these principles to my clients. Because if you understand why we are doing what we’re doing, it’s easier for you to work with me to affect the changes you’re looking to make.
We think of our brains as a single organ, but in actual fact we switch between two distinctly separate areas from which we operate, dependent on our state of mind.
Let's take a look at what goes on in our brains and how we respond to stress and trauma...
what is solution-focused therapy?
Your Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC) is effectively the bit you know as you – your consciousness. When you are relaxed and calm, it’s attached to a vast resource, which we refer to as your Intellectual Mind (IM).
When you’re using this part of your brain you’re able to make proper assessment of what’s going on around you, come up with solutions to problems, generally get a handle on what’s going on around you, and act accordingly.
As you can see from the diagram, there’s also another area of the brain, which we call our Primitive Mind (PM). There are three main areas of this original, primitive part of the brain.
The amygdala, which triggers what you might refer to as your fight, flight or freeze responses. The hippocampus, which stores patterns of thoughts and behaviour. And the hypothalamus, which regulates chemical responses in your body and brain.
In a nutshell, this primitive part of our minds is our brain’s safety mechanism.
It’s purpose is to save us from danger and eliminate risk factors.
When you’re experiencing a high level of stress (which can either be either a particular stressor, or an accumulation of stress over time) what happens is that your IM relinquishes control. Your PM, sensing your stress levels, steps in to protect you from what it perceives to be danger.
All this happens behind the scenes – your PFC is just doing it’s thing, being you – you won’t know that this change is happening, you might not even consciously feel different. But your ability to process your needs and responses will be fundamentally altered in that moment.
This is super-helpful in a life threatening situation (after all, it’s ideal to be in ‘red alert’ mode when you are in danger), but frankly, it’s a major pain in the backside if you’re just trying to go about your everyday life.
It can end up feeling like you’re constantly self-sabotaging, and you might not even know why.
The negative thinking loop
When your PM is in the driving seat, the way in which you’re able to think changes.
As it’s all about scanning for threats in order to keep you safe, your PM can only see things from the worst possible perspective – it’s always negative. When you’re operating from this part of your brain you can only think in terms of anger, anxiety or depression.
If you think about it, these mindsets are really just primitive mechanisms to help you fend off threats, or react adversely to risky situations.
Also, because it’s a separate area of the brain to the IM, it’s not an intellect. It can’t come up with new solutions to problems. Instead it has to rely on stored templates of thoughts and behaviour in the hippocampus. But the problem is that often, these stored templates might not be the best course of action or reaction as you go about your life.
They might even be a bit inappropriate for the circumstances you’re interacting with. Which means you’re likely to experience more negative outcomes from interactions you have whilst you’re operating from your PM.
That other bit of the PM we mentioned in the diagram – the hypothalamus – that’s kind of a big deal too.
It regulates your hormones, and your emotional responses. So when your PM is in the driving seat, and your stress levels are spiking, your hypothalamus is sending out chemical signals. These signals flood your brain and body with stress hormones, and make it hard for you to regulate your emotions.
And to top it all off, the hypothalamus regulates sleep, which is why, when you’re stressed, you don’t sleep properly.
It can feel impossibly hard shake it off and start using your IM again. Your PM, having taken over because your stress levels are high, is now making you think inherently negatively about EVERYTHING. You’ll be looking for the worst possible outcomes. This forces you to rely on old fall-backs of unhealthy behaviour and thought patterns. And all this creates yet more stress, keeping you glued to that PM even longer.
Regaining your brain's tools.
Now we understand a bit about these different areas of the brain it becomes easier to understand why Solution-Focused therapy works by focusing on positive goals.
If you come to me for therapy to treat your anxiety, and we approach it by focusing in as much detail as you can muster about what’s making you anxious. Which part of the brain do you think will be in charge? Yep, your PM, for sure. If you focus on something that’s making you anxious and stressed, right away you’re going to feel…. anxious and stressed!
And if you’re no longer using that sensible, objective, intellectual part of your brain, you’ve cut off the tools you’d usually depend on to figure things out with. No IM – no ability to see what’s going on and make an objective assessment of what’s going on before taking action to improve things. And no ability to figure out new ways to solve problems or overcome fears.
And if you’re there in your PM, in that state of anxiety and stress during our session, your hippocampus will be remembering those patterns of thought and saving them as a template for how to feel next time you’re stressed. You’ll have actually reinforced that anxiety response by delving into it.
So, with Solution-Focused Therapy, you come for therapy, and we base it around a focus of what’s good, what works for you, and how you want to change things for the better.
Rather than it being about “I don’t want to feel anxious about my health / going out in public / being good enough at my job” etc, it’s about “I want to feel relaxed about my health / calm and comfortable when I go out / confident at work”.
By switching the focus around we are able to stay in our IM – come up with solutions, and keep our stress levels low.
Create your own feelgood chemistry
The good news is that, just as we can upset the balance and create stress in our brains and bodies, we also have the tools to recalibrate. We can actively boost production of the chemicals that make us happy, calm and content. Switching the focus of your thoughts to the positive is one of the simple ways to do so.
This is what the process of Solution-Focused Therapy is all about. Therapy is centred around changing your thoughts and behaviours. It creates new neural pathways in the brain, which make you feel good, make appropriate choices, and enable you to achieve your goals. I will help you understand how to make these changes for yourself, and facilitate those changes.
The amazing thing is that you will start to notice changes really early on in the process, often after the first session you’ll start to feel different. And it’s like riding a bike – once you understand what you need to do, and you start to make progress, you can’t unlearn it, so it becomes a permanent positive change.
How The Better Minds Project works using the Solution-Focused approach
In terms of the methods I use within the solution-focused approach, I combine some of the best-tested methods in the field of psychotherapy in client sessions. I use techniques from Acceptance and Commitment therapy, Psychodynamic therapy, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. I use some of the most helpful concepts from these models, and couch these within the framework of the Solution-Focused Therapy model.
These psychotherapeutic elements are complimented with the use of hypnotherapy, and non-contact somatic techniques. I use breathwork, self massage, stretches and vocal exercises, designed to soothe and regulate your nervous system, restoring a sense of safety, calm, and relaxation.
How I work with trauma
It is undoubtedly healthy and constructive to focus on the changes we can make, and the choices available to us in order to improve our wellbeing. But sometimes my clients find that there is a ‘block’ to the Solution-Focused approach. This usually arises from a trauma that is affecting their ability to heal and progress. And so the question comes up – how can we work in a Solution-Focused way whilst processing this trauma?
In these cases, we can work through the trauma block by applying a psychodynamic approach to explore the trauma. We pause the goal-oriented work to look at where the trauma response originates. Instead, we look at how your subconscious processes may be informing your primitive mind templates. And how that might be affecting your thoughts and behaviours in a way that is blocking progress.
Using talking therapy and somatic exercises to unravel these trauma-knots, we clear the path for us to be able to focus more effectively on your best hopes for the life you want for yourself.
Why I use hypnosis
Hypnosis is incredibly effective within the Solution-Focused model of therapy. This is because when we use hypnosis to put a person into a relaxed trance state we can directly access the subconscious.
Remember the hippocampus? By using hypnosis we are creating a line of communication directly to this part of your subconscious brain. Here we can switch out your irrational, unpleasant thoughts, and unhealthy, self-sabotaging behaviours, and imprint new, healthier template. This means that when you find yourself operating from your PM you are equipped to make better choices and take more constructive actions.
And in case you were wondering, especially if you’ve never had hypnotherapy before, whether this means that when you’re being hypnotised you will somehow miraculously be under some sort of mind-control… Don’t worry, you won’t. Not in any way whatsoever.
You’ll be awake and aware of your surroundings throughout. The sensation of being under hypnosis can be described as being in a kind of guided daydream. It’s really relaxing, and you have complete control of both mind and body. Your thoughts will just wander with the words you hear.
Your subconscious will take from it the information it needs, and when the session ends you can go about your day as you usually would.
The cherry on the cake
A major factor that sets Solution-Focused therapy apart from most other forms of therapy, is the speed at which it works. Most therapy goes on for months, and in some cases years, before the client’s goal is reached.
Solution-Focused therapy is different. With the exception of specific, short-term treatments, most clients see me for between 8-12 sessions. Some a few more, some a couple less – it depends on the individual, and what we’re working on, but nonetheless it is fast working.
As a result it is extremely cost-effective in comparison to other forms of therapy. And how lovely to be able to feel so much better, so quickly, for good.
If you've been struggling with your mental health, understanding what's going on in your brain can feel like a real 'Eureka!' moment
If this really resonates with you, feel free to get in touch. I’m an experienced psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, and I help people with this sort of stuff all the time. I work online as well as in person (you can find out more about me here, and info about booking and prices here) if you’d like to work with me.
And if you’re just looking for something you can do by yourself, check out my range of hypnotherapy relaxation tracks, some of which are designed specifically for sleep. You can download them in seconds, and they are incredibly helpful for helping you de-stress and reset your brain so it’s ready for sleep.
You can also pick up more tips and info on how to successfully hack your mental health on my socials, just click the links below.
