Elliott Connie shows you how to help your clients reach their goals much faster as they get “unstuck” and draw on their existing resources and personal strengths.

Part 1

What Distinguishes SFBT From Traditional Approaches?

• Key tenets, theories and the evidence behind SFBT
• How important is the problem?
• Why assessment, diagnosis and treatment planning don’t guide treatment
• ”The details drive the change”
• The absence of symptomology versus the presence of what clients most desire
• The two most important words in SFBT

Part 2

Intentional Questions: The Strength Behind SFBT

• Reframe questions as invitations
• How to build questions that:
  • Lead to meaningful answers
  • Create change that sticks
  • Harness your client’s strengths and resources
  • Immediately replace resistance with buy-in
  • Keep the client engaged throughout session
• Core SFBT questions:
  • Desired Outcome: Discover what clients want to be different in their lives
  • Resource Talk: Activate the client’s strengths
  • Preferred Future: Elicit a detailed description of what the client wants
  • Scaling: Measure progress toward the desired outcomes
  • Coping Questions: Find positive resources even in difficult situations

Part 3

Inside a SFBT Session: Innovative, Practical Strategies from Start to Finish

• Opening the Session
  • Why your first few interactions are crucial
  • How to elicit hope right away
  • Key questions to instantly shift the client’s perspective
• The Core of the Session
  • Working with one problem at a time
  • Strategies to build momentum toward the client’s hoped for future
  • Tolerating silence and using it as a valuable tool
  • What to do when the client is focused on problems and symptoms
  • Techniques to keep the client engaged and the session meaningful
• Closing the Session
  • Specific strategies for effective session closure
  • Increasing the likelihood of between-session work
• Video case examples: See each step of SFBT — in action!

Elliott Connie, MA, LPC, is a Texas-based psychotherapist in private practice and the founder/director of The Solution-Focused University, an online learning community that trains and provides resources for professionals who want to master the Solution Focused approach in their work.

Over the course of his 15-year clinical career, Elliott has successfully worked with thousands of individuals, couples, and families using a solution-focused model to help them achieve their desired outcomes. He is an experienced speaker who has gained international recognition for training hundreds of practitioners throughout the United States, Australia, Europe and Asia on the solution-focused treatment model.

Elliott is the author/co-author of four books, including Solution-Focused Brief Therapy with Clients Managing Trauma (Oxford University Press, 2018), The Solution Focused Marriage: 5 Simple Habits That Will Bring Out the Best in Your Relationship (The Connie Institute, 2012), Solution Building in Couples Therapy (Springer, 2012), and The Art of Solution Focused Therapy (Springer, 2009).