Solution Focused Techniques

A comprehensive toolkit of solution-focused questioning and intervention techniques designed to help clients identify resources, build on strengths, and create positive change.

Solution-focused techniques shift the coaching conversation from problem analysis to solution construction. These evidence-based approaches help clients discover their existing capabilities, envision preferred futures, and identify practical steps toward their goals.

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Core Relationship-Building Techniques

🎯 Summarising and Reflecting

Purpose: Build trust and demonstrate empathy by accurately mirroring client communication

How to Use:

• Mirror the client's exact words when possible
• Reflect both content and emotional undertones
• Use reflections to confirm understanding before proceeding
• Validate the client's experience without judgment

Examples:

• "It sounds as though you're very angry..."
• "I can hear how upset that makes you..."
• "It's clear that you love your children very much..."

Key Skill: Listen for both the spoken words and the underlying emotions or values being expressed.

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Future-Focused Questions

🌟 The Desired Situation Question

Purpose: Help clients articulate clear, positive visions of their preferred future

How to Use:

• Ask after establishing rapport and understanding current situation
• Encourage specific, concrete descriptions rather than vague goals
• Help clients focus on what they want (not what they don't want)
• Follow up with detail-gathering questions

Example Phrasings:

• "What would your ideal outcome be?"
• "How would you like things to be different?"
• "How will you notice that things have become better?"
• "What would success look like for you?"

Follow-up: "Tell me more about what that would look like in practice..."

⬆️ The What's Better Question

Purpose: Focus attention on progress and positive changes between sessions

How to Use:

• Start follow-up sessions by exploring improvements
• Notice and amplify even small positive changes
• Help clients recognize progress they might overlook
• Build momentum by celebrating wins

Example Phrasings:

• "How are things better since we last met?"
• "What's improved?"
• "What positive changes have you noticed?"
• "Even if it's small, what's been different?"

Key Insight: Clients often focus on what's still wrong rather than what's getting better.

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Resource and Strength-Finding Questions

💪 The Past Success Question

Purpose: Identify existing skills and resources by exploring previous successes

How to Use:

• Draw connections between past successes and current challenges
• Help clients recognize their existing capabilities
• Build confidence by highlighting proven problem-solving skills
• Extract transferable strategies from past victories

Example Phrasings:

• "Have you faced similar issues in the past?"
• "Have you felt like this before? How did you cope then?"
• "Tell me about a time when you dealt with a problem well."
• "When have you successfully handled something like this?"

Follow-up: "What specifically did you do that worked? How might you apply that here?"

📊 The Scaling Question

Purpose: Measure progress, identify next steps, and make abstract concepts concrete

How to Use:

• Clearly define what 0 and 10 represent for the specific situation
• Use for both current state assessment and progress tracking
• Focus on moving up just one point (manageable change)
• Explore what different points on the scale would look like

Example Sequence:

1. "On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is 'every communication ends in argument' and 10 is 'communications are easy and uncomplicated', where are things now?"
2. "What would it take to move that score up by one point?"
3. "What would a 10 feel like? What would you notice?"
4. "How did you get from 0 to [current number]?"

Key Benefit: Makes progress tangible and identifies specific next steps.

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Breakthrough Questions

✨ The Miracle Question

Purpose: Help "stuck" clients envision solutions by bypassing analytical barriers

How to Use:

• Use when clients can't imagine positive change
• Encourage detailed, sensory-rich descriptions
• Focus on observable behaviors and differences
• Build hope through vivid future visualization

Complete Script: "Imagine you went to sleep tonight, and while you were sleeping, a miracle happened. All the issues you're dealing with were resolved. But because you were asleep, you didn't know the miracle had occurred.

When you wake up tomorrow morning, what would be the first signs that let you know this miracle had happened?"

Follow-up Questions:

• "What will you notice around you?"
• "What will you see? What will you hear?"
• "How will you be feeling inside?"
• "How will others know the miracle happened?"
• "What will be different about your day?"

Key Insight: Bypasses logical barriers to help clients access their creative problem-solving abilities.

🔍 The Exception Finding Question

Purpose: Discover existing solutions by identifying times when the problem was absent or less severe

How to Use:

• Look for patterns in when problems don't occur
• Help clients recognize they already have some solutions
• Identify conditions that support success
• Build on existing positive experiences

Example Sequence:

• "Are there times when this problem doesn't happen or isn't so intense?"
• "How was it different during those times?"
• "What was happening that made it better?"
• "How did you make that happen?"
• "What would need to be in place for that to happen more often?"

Key Principle: Problems are never constant – there are always exceptions to explore.

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Session Structure Questions

🎯 The Usefulness Question

Purpose: Establish clear session goals and maintain client focus

How to Use:

• Ask at the beginning of each session
• Return to when conversation becomes unfocused
• Use to evaluate session effectiveness
• Keep client in control of session direction

Example Phrasings:

• "What would you like to achieve by the end of our time today?"
• "How can we make this conversation most useful to you?"
• "How will you know this discussion has been valuable?"
• "What would need to happen for you to leave feeling this was time well spent?"

Session Management: Return to this question if the conversation drifts from productive focus.

🎯 Solution Focused Directing

Purpose: Guide clients toward action without being prescriptive

How to Use:

• Embed the assumption that change is possible in your questions
• Focus on what needs to happen rather than what's wrong
• Let clients discover their own path to solutions
• Make goal achievement feel achievable and natural

Example Phrasings:

• "What would you need to do to make [goal] possible?"
• "How could you do things differently so [problem] doesn't reoccur?"
• "What would have to happen for you to feel confident about [situation]?"
• "How will you know you're on the right track?"

Subtle Power: Plants seeds of possibility while keeping client in control of solutions.

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Resilience and Coping Questions

💪 The Coping Question

Purpose: Highlight existing resilience when clients feel overwhelmed or resourceless

How to Use:

• Use when clients feel depleted or hopeless
• Acknowledge the difficulty while highlighting their strength
• Focus on current coping mechanisms they may not recognize
• Connect to past experiences of successful coping

Example Phrasings:

• "How do you manage to cope with all of this?"
• "What keeps you going when things are really tough?"
• "Thinking back to that difficult time, how did you manage to keep going?"
• "Many people would have given up by now – what is it that helps you persist?"

Key Message: "You're stronger and more resourceful than you realize."

🔄 Reframing

Purpose: Offer alternative, more positive interpretations of situations or behaviors

How to Use:

• Listen for underlying positive intentions behind negative behaviors
• Offer gentle alternative perspectives without invalidating client's experience
• Help clients see strengths where they see only problems
• Use tentative language ("Could it be...?" "What if...?")

Example:Client: "He's determined to make things difficult. He won't stop going on about taking Josh to football." Coach: "Do you think that might be his way of expressing how much he wants to contribute to Josh's life and how much he cares for him?"

Reframing Formula: [Behavior] + [Positive Intention] = New Perspective

👁️ The Perspective Change Question

Purpose: Help clients visualize success through others' eyes and identify observable changes

How to Use:

• Focus on external, observable indicators of change
• Help clients consider impact on relationships
• Make abstract goals concrete and measurable
• Build motivation through social accountability

Example Phrasings:

• "How will your daughter know the conflict has reduced?"
• "How will your manager know you're taking initiative?"
• "What will your partner notice that's different?"
• "How will your children know you're feeling better?"

Key Benefit: Transforms internal goals into observable, relationship-focused outcomes.

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Support and Validation Techniques

✅ Normalising

Purpose: Reduce client shame and isolation by validating their responses as normal

How to Use:

• Use when clients judge themselves harshly for their reactions
• Acknowledge the normalcy of their response without minimizing their experience
• Help clients feel less alone in their struggles
• Reduce self-blame and shame

Example Phrasings:

• "Most people would feel angry in a situation like this."
• "It's completely normal to feel upset about this."
• "That's such a human response to this kind of stress."
• "Anyone facing this would find it challenging."

Therapeutic Effect: Reduces isolation and self-judgment, creating space for growth.

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Between-Session Tasks

🔍 The Observation Task

Purpose: Challenge "nothing ever gets better" thinking by systematic observation

How to Use:

• Assign when clients can't see any positive changes
• Focus on small improvements rather than major breakthroughs
• Help clients become researchers of their own success
• Build evidence against hopeless thinking patterns

Complete Script: "Between now and when we meet next, I'd like you to notice times when things are just a little bit better than usual. Pay attention to:

• How it feels different
• What happened differently that made it better
• What you or others did that contributed to the improvement

Don't try to make things better – just notice when they are."

Key Insight: What we pay attention to tends to expand.

✅ The Continuation Question

Purpose: Identify what's already working to prevent over-correction and build confidence

How to Use:

• Balance focus on problems with appreciation for what's working
• Help clients avoid changing everything at once
• Build on existing strengths and successes
• Provide foundation of stability for other changes

Example Phrasings:

• "What's already working well that you want to keep?"
• "Which parts of your life feel like they don't need changing?"
• "What are you already doing that's helpful?"
• "Where do you feel things are on track?"

Therapeutic Value: Prevents clients from feeling their entire life needs overhaul.

🌟 The Optimism Question

Purpose: Cultivate hope by identifying positive indicators and building future-focused thinking

How to Use:

• Look for small signs of hope or progress
• Help clients shift from despair to possibility
• Focus on evidence of positive change, however small
• Build momentum through hope cultivation

Example Phrasings:

• "What small signs give you reason for optimism?"
• "What changes, even tiny ones, suggest you're making progress?"
• "What makes you feel hopeful about the future?"
• "What evidence do you have that things can improve?"

Hope Building: Even small signs of progress can reignite motivation and energy.

💭 The Imagination Suggestion

Purpose: Use visualization to create positive expectancy and prime for success

How to Use:

• Give as homework between sessions
• Focus on small improvements rather than dramatic change
• Use the power of expectation to influence outcomes
• Create positive mental rehearsal for success

Complete Script: "Tonight before you go to sleep, I'd like you to imagine what tomorrow would feel like if it was just a little bit better than today. Don't worry about how it would happen – just imagine how it would feel and what small things would be different."

Psychological Basis: Positive visualization primes the mind to notice and create opportunities for improvement.

🏆 The Platform Question

Purpose: Acknowledge progress already made to build confidence for future change

How to Use:

• Highlight client's journey and growth so far
• Build confidence by recognizing achievements
• Show that client is capable of creating change
• Create momentum for continued progress

Example Phrasings:

• "What have you already achieved that you're proud of?"
• "What's working better now than when we first started?"
• "How have you changed or grown through this process?"
• "What progress have you made that might surprise your past self?"

Confidence Building: Recognizing past success builds belief in future possibilities.

🛡️ The Resisting the Urge Task

Purpose: Build self-control awareness and confidence in resisting unwanted behaviors

How to Use:

• Acknowledge that urges to revert are normal
• Focus on client's existing resistance skills
• Build confidence in self-control abilities
• Transform potential "failures" into learning opportunities

Complete Script: "Change isn't always linear, and it's normal to feel tempted to return to old patterns. Next time you feel that urge, I want you to notice what you do that helps you resist it. Pay attention to:

• What thoughts help you stay on track
• What you tell yourself
• What actions you take instead
• How you feel after successfully resisting

You already have resistance skills – this will help you recognize them."

Key Message: You have the power to choose different behaviors, and you've already proven it.

🤝 Mutualising

Purpose: Find common ground between conflicting positions to enable collaboration

How to Use:

• Look beyond surface disagreements to underlying shared values
• Help clients see they share more than they initially think
• Reframe conflicts as different approaches to shared goals
• Create foundation for collaborative problem-solving

Example:Client: "I want Kate to live with me full-time with Saturday visits to her dad, but he wants 50/50 time. It's impossible to resolve."

Coach: "I can hear that you have different ideas about the practical arrangements. But it sounds like you both want to find a solution that's in Kate's best interests. Is that something you'd both agree on?"

Technique: Acknowledge differences + Identify shared values = Common ground for solutions

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Quick Reference Guide

🎯 When to Use Each Technique:

Building Rapport: Summarising & Reflecting, Normalising
Exploring Goals: Desired Situation, Miracle Question, Usefulness Question
Finding Resources: Past Success, Exception Finding, Continuation Question
Measuring Progress: Scaling Question, What's Better, Platform Question
Building Hope: Optimism Question, Imagination Suggestion, Reframing
Homework Tasks: Observation Task, Resisting Urge Task
Conflict Resolution: Perspective Change, Mutualising
When Stuck: Coping Question, Solution-Focused Directing

✨ Key Principles:

• Focus on solutions, not problems
• Build on existing strengths and resources
• Small changes can lead to big results
• Clients are the experts on their own lives
• What you pay attention to expands
• Change is always happening – look for exceptions
• Future-focused questions create possibility