Coaching practices for Problem Formulation Therapy

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

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

• It feels like this is just how I am
• When I try to untangle one of these convictions in my head it just spins
• I know everything I want to get away from, but if you asked me what "better" actually looks like
• 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
• This problem is so knotty and interdependent that every time we brainstorm it, the room just locks onto whoever framed it first, and half the disagreement is really people picturing entirely different versions of the same mess.

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. 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.
3. 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
4. Use a challenging beliefs worksheet to work a stuck point completely
   The CPT challenging beliefs worksheet is a structured, written process for examining one stuck point at a time.
   Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT): Unsticking the Meanings That Maintain PTSD
5. Preferred Future: Describing Life When the Problem Is Solved
   Ask the person to describe in concrete, behavioral detail what life looks like when things are better.
   Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Building On What Works
6. Generate solutions without premature evaluation
   List as many potential solutions as possible before judging any of them.
   Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical
7. Use morphological analysis for wicked problems with many interdependencies
   The method shines on problems too complex for brainstorming to cover adequately.
   Morphological Analysis, Made Practical
8. 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
9. Build a positive problem orientation
   Treat problems as normal, solvable challenges rather than signs of personal failure.
   Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical
10. Evaluate the outcome and adjust
    After implementing, honestly assess what worked, what didn’t, and what to do next.
    Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical

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