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As the name suggests, the solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), also called solution-focused therapy or solution-building practice , is future-focused, goal-directed, and focuses on solutions, rather than on problems that brought clients to seek therapy. This approach to therapy was developed by de Shazer, and Insoo, Kim, Berg, and their colleagues beginning in late the 1970s in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The developers observed hundreds and hundreds of hours of therapy over the course of many years, noting the questions, behaviors, emotions, and human aspects of the interactions. In addition to paying attention to what impact these activities had on the clients, they also observed therapist activities. Questions and activities related to clients' reports of progress were saved and those that were not were discarded. The entire model was developed inductively in an outpatient mental health service setting without screening of clients. Since then, SFBT has not only become one of the leading schools of brief therapy, but it has become a major influence in such diverse fields as business, social policy, education, criminal justice services, child welfare, and domestic violence offenders treatment. Described as a goal-driven model, SFBT emphasizes clear, concise, behavioral and realistic goal negotiations as its hallmark. Based on its core assumptions that clients hold keys to their ... log in or subscribe to read full text