Therapy: A Personal Review of SFBT

SFBT stands for solution focused brief therapy, which is a methodology of talk therapy used in individual counseling sessions. It focuses almost exclusively on solving the problem the client presents as opposed to evaluating the source of the problem. The goal of SFBT is to increase the client’s problem solving capabilities. 

I was an SFBT client for six years, which is significantly longer than the typical client, during my early adolescent and teenage years. During that time, I worked with the same therapist with a standing weekly appointment. Because of the unusual nature of my experience, my opinions about SFBT have changed since I’ve been in school.

During my experience in therapy, I quickly grew frustrated with the duration that I was in therapy. I was told it would be less than ten sessions, while I ended up having hundreds. I was also frustrated by my therapist’s seeming unwillingness to accept that some of my problems came from sources outside of my control. Up until learning more about SFBT I would have said that it is not suitable for people with similar experiences to mine.

However, after learning more about SFBT in an academic sense, I have changed my opinion on it. The data supporting it is extensive, and it has been approved for evidence-based treatment for many more mental health concerns than other popular mentions such as CBT. Many people find it helpful because it gets right to the point of why people seek out talk therapy, which is to be given a solution to their problems. SFBT teaches the client how to make their own goals and formulate possible solutions.

Based on the data I’ve seen, I believe that SFBT could be beneficial for people with autism, especially if they want specific advice about issues like social relationships and executive functioning. Because it averages at about five sessions, it is also helpful for people who want a short therapy experience due to time, money, or other limited resources. It is not as commonly practiced as CBT, so it might be difficult to find a therapist who explicitly specializes in this technique, but if you bring it up to another therapist they should be willing to pull therapeutic strategies from the literature about it.