Coaching practices for Problem Solving Therapy with Friends

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

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

• If a friend brought me this exact dilemma I’d know in two seconds what they should do, but stuck inside my own version I just go in circles
• When I hit a problem like this alone I just go in circles, but I’ve noticed that the moment I’m actually working it through out loud with another person I find myself making leaps I’d never reach by myself
• My kid and I agree on a fix and it sounds great in the moment, but a few days later it’s fallen apart again
• I finally tried something and it only half-worked, and my whole brain went "see, nothing I do ever works"
• 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

Practices that may help

1. 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.
2. Give yourself advice as if advising a close friend
   Describe your problem as if a close friend brought it to you — then write the advice you would give them.
   Self-Distancing Journaling
3. 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.
4. Solve problems collaboratively to access your ZPD
   Joint problem-solving with a peer or coach reveals capability you could not reach alone.
   Zone of Proximal Development: Learning at Your Real Edge
5. Evaluate solutions for durability: realistic, mutually satisfying, safe
   A collaborative solution that fails one of three tests — realistic, mutually satisfying, safe — will not hold.
   Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene)
6. Evaluate the outcome and adjust
   After implementing, honestly assess what worked, what didn’t, and what to do next.
   Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical
7. Generate solutions without premature evaluation
   List as many potential solutions as possible before judging any of them.
   Problem-Solving Therapy, 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. 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
10. Build a positive problem orientation
    Treat problems as normal, solvable challenges rather than signs of personal failure.
    Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical

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