The philosophy of Brief Focused Support
The origins of Brief Focused Support are in Brief Focused Therapy. There are several key features:
- Change is always possible. If circumstances cannot change, it is always possible to change the way that circumstances impact on the individual.
- The individual is the expert about their own problems and they can define their own goals and solutions to their problems.
- The focus of support is to encourage individuals to make changes towards their own preferred goals and solutions to their problems.
- The emphasis of the support is on what's possible and changeable - to do something differently!
The basic assumptions are:
- Individuals have resources and strengths to resolve problems
- The tutors job is to identify and amplify change
- It is usually unnecessary to know much about the problem in order to resolve it
- A small change in one small aspect of the problem is often all that is necessary to "kick start" the process of change to resolves the problem.
- Individuals are "stuck" in present ways of thinking about problems - and solutions!
- The focus is on what is possible rather than what is impossible and intractable
University of Leeds, School of Medicine
