Focusing on What Works
Strength-Based Therapy
Strengths-Based Therapy is an umbrella term for various therapeutic approaches (including Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Narrative Therapy) that deliberately shift the focus from a client's deficits, weaknesses, and problems to their inherent strengths, resources, and successful coping strategies. The core principle is that focusing on what's working empowers clients, fosters hope, and provides the foundation for building solutions to current challenges.
Who Created Strengths-Based Therapy?
Strengths-Based Therapy is not a single, manualized technique but rather a paradigm shift that developed across multiple therapeutic models in the late 20th century. Key figures include:
Dr. Judith Rodin and Dr. Martin Seligman (Positive Psychology): While not therapists, their work provided the academic framework for focusing on human flourishing and identifying individual character strengths (e.g., courage, creativity, wisdom).
Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg (Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, SFBT): Pioneers who developed specific techniques (like the Miracle Question) to bypass problem talk and immediately focus on client resources and successful exceptions.
Michael White and David Epston (Narrative Therapy): Developed the technique of Externalizing the Problem to separate the client's identity from their struggles, highlighting times the client successfully resisted the problem.
The common thread among these approaches is the belief that every individual and family possesses resilience, competence, and untapped resources (Saleebey, 2013).
Perspectives in Strengths-Based Therapy
The Therapist's Perspective
The Strengths-Based therapist adopts a collaborative, hopeful, and competency-focused stance. They assume the client is already capable and resourceful; the problem lies in the client having lost sight of these qualities under stress.
The therapist's role is that of a resource archaeologist or cheerleader who prioritizes:
Non-Pathologizing: Viewing current difficulties not as signs of deep-seated deficit but as challenges that require access to existing, forgotten strengths.
Eliciting Competency: Using specific questions to draw out and amplify the client's past successes, coping skills, and supportive relationships.
Focus on Exceptions: Searching meticulously for exceptions to the problem—times when the client expected the problem to occur but it did not, or when it was less severe.
The Client's Perspective
The client shifts from feeling helpless or defined by their diagnosis or past failures to feeling empowered, seen, and capable. They realize that their history is not just a collection of failures, but also a record of resilience and resourcefulness.
The client learns to:
Re-Author Self-Identity: Replace labels of inadequacy ("I am weak") with narratives of strength ("I am resilient because I survived that, and here is how I coped").
Identify Resources: Recognize that current support systems, character traits, and past coping mechanisms are available resources for current problems.
Initiate Action: Focus energy on replicating successful past behaviors and amplifying small wins, rather than dwelling on the magnitude of the problem.
What to Expect in an Strengths-Based Therapy Session
Sessions are often goal-oriented, positive, and conversational, relying heavily on specific language and inquiry to elicit strengths.
Goal Setting: The session starts with defining clear, positive, and observable goals for the future (e.g., "What will your life look like when you feel more peaceful?").
Strength/Resource Inventory: The therapist asks specific questions designed to uncover hidden strengths (e.g., "How did you manage to get out of bed this morning despite everything?", "What have you done in your past that you are most proud of?", "Who believes in you?").
Exception Finding: The therapist meticulously investigates times when the problem was not happening (e.g., "Tell me about a day last week when you felt even 10% less anxious. What were you doing differently?").
Scaling and Amplifying: The therapist uses techniques like scaling (e.g., "On a scale of 1 to 10, how hopeful are you?") and then explores what small steps are needed to move up the scale, focusing on the client's existing competence.
Affirmation and Homework: Sessions end with sincere compliments about the client's strengths and a small, concrete homework assignment, often to "do more of what worked" or "notice what works."
How Strengths-Based Therapy Can Help a Person
Strengths-Based Therapy accelerates the change process by focusing on the client's already-present assets.
Fosters Hope: By intentionally searching for and highlighting competence, SBT quickly combats the hopelessness that often accompanies mental health challenges.
Increases Self-Efficacy: It empowers the client by proving, through their own narrative, that they have the internal power to manage and overcome difficulties.
Reduces Resistance: The non-pathologizing, collaborative stance makes clients feel respected and validated, reducing the defensiveness often triggered by problem-focused discussions.
Common Uses and Applications (DSM-5 Disorders and Life Problems)
Strengths-Based Therapy is a highly versatile framework effective for virtually any client but is particularly powerful for issues of low motivation, self-esteem, or chronic distress.
General Anxiety and Depression: By shifting focus from the symptoms to the client's coping skills and unique outcomes.
Substance Use Disorders: Focusing on the client's capacity for abstinence and the successful times they have resisted the urge.
Child and Adolescent Issues: Building self-esteem and identifying successful behaviors, particularly in school or family contexts.
Life Problems: Low self-esteem, difficulty with goal-setting, managing chronic stress, and coping with significant life transitions.
References
Saleebey, D. (2013). The strengths perspective in social work practice (6th ed.). Pearson Education.
Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14.
White, M. (2007). Maps of narrative practice. W. W. Norton & Company. (Illustrates the strength-based technique of externalization.)
Ready to Focus on Your Strengths and Achieve Your Goals?
If you are ready to shift your focus from deficits to assets, harness your inner resilience, and build a meaningful future, a Strengths-Based therapist can guide you.
