Solution Focused Thinking Definition: 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 Solution Focused Thinking Definition, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Practices that may help
- 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. - 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 - 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 - The Miracle Question: Designing Your Life Without the Problem
The miracle question — "Suppose a miracle happened and the problem was solved while you slept — how would you know? What would be different?" — is a solution-focused technique that bypasses problem-analysis and invites clients to describe, in concrete behavioral detail, what they actually want. It is a clinical tool within SFBT, which has moderate RCT support; the question itself has not been isolated in controlled trials but is widely used and clinically well-supported. - Define — frame the right problem
Synthesize your research into a single, sharp problem statement before solving.
Design Thinking, Step by Step - 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 - Generate solutions without premature evaluation
List as many potential solutions as possible before judging any of them.
Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical - Adopt a "not-knowing" stance before problem-solving
Delay solution-generation by first articulating what you genuinely do not know about a problem.
Beginner's Mind (Shoshin), Made Practical - Problem Reframing: Solving the Right Problem First
Problem reframing means deliberately reconsidering what problem you are actually trying to solve before generating solutions. Min Basadur’s work on creative problem-solving shows that the framing you start with strongly constrains the solutions you find — changing the framing often unlocks solutions that were invisible under the original definition. - Climb the why–why ladder
Ask "why is this a problem?" repeatedly to reveal the higher-level goal your current framing may be missing.
Problem Reframing: Solving the Right Problem First
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
- The problem I’m chasing is still this big blurry "make it better" cloud, and every time I try to start I spin out because I’ve never pinned down the one sharp thing I’m actually trying to solve for whom.
- 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
Related concerns
- Brief Solution Focused
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.
- Focus On Solutions Not Problems
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.
- Focus On The Solution Not The Problem Meaning
Identify times when the problem was absent or less severe — these are evidence that solutions already exist.
Exception Finding: When Is the Problem Already Less Severe?
- How To Focus On Solutions Rather Than Problems
Assign between-session observation tasks that direct attention toward what’s already working.
The Formula First-Session Task and Between-Session Noticing
- Solution Focused Brief
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.
- Solution Focused Brief Treatment
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.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.