Brief Solution Therapy: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Brief Solution Therapy, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Practices that may help

1. Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Building On What Works
   Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, directs attention to what already works — client strengths, past successes, and desired futures — rather than to analyzing problems. Meta-analyses report small-to-moderate positive effects across a range of presenting issues, with particular strength in behavioral problems and depression in adult populations.
2. Exception Finding: When Is the Problem Already Less Severe?
   Identify times when the problem was absent or less severe — these are evidence that solutions already exist.
   Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Building On What Works
3. Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical
   Problem-Solving Therapy (PST), developed by Nezu and D’Zurilla, treats depression and anxiety by building structured, step-by-step problem-solving skills — targeting the learned helplessness and avoidance that occur when people face stressful life problems without an effective coping framework. Multiple randomised trials support PST for depression, especially when linked to real-life problem load.
4. The Formula First-Session Task and Between-Session Noticing
   Assign between-session observation tasks that direct attention toward what’s already working.
   Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Building On What Works
5. Generate solutions without premature evaluation
   List as many potential solutions as possible before judging any of them.
   Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical
6. Manage emotional arousal before and during problem solving
   Use a brief calming strategy when emotions are too high to solve problems effectively.
   Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical
7. Combine TIPP components into a crisis sequence
   For very high arousal, run TIPP as a full sequence — temperature first, then exercise, then breathing, then relaxation.
   TIPP: DBT’s Crisis Skill for Rapidly Lowering Emotional Intensity
8. Use TIPP to make other skills accessible again
   TIPP is not the endpoint — it reduces arousal so cognitive and interpersonal skills become usable.
   TIPP: DBT’s Crisis Skill for Rapidly Lowering Emotional Intensity
9. Sleep Restriction Therapy
   Arthur Spielman’s sleep restriction therapy deliberately limits time in bed to match actual sleep time, building homeostatic pressure until the sleep drive overpowers the arousal that sustains insomnia. It is one of the most effective components of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), with strong RCT support, though it requires tolerating increased daytime sleepiness for one to two weeks and is not appropriate without guidance for people with bipolar disorder, seizure history, or certain other conditions.
10. Evaluate solutions against costs, benefits, and fit
    Rate each solution on likelihood of success, personal costs, and fit with your values.
    Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• It feels like this is just how I am→
• All day my attention goes straight to what went wrong→
• I’ve got maybe two ideas for what to do about this and both feel hopeless, so I shoot every other thought down before I even finish it→
• I’m too wound up to think straight about this→
• When I’m this far gone no single trick is enough→

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.