Why Does The Rpn Use Of Solution Focused Therapy
Psychiatric Nursing – Therapeutic Interventions.
Part Two) how may the RPN use Solution Focused Therapy as a therapeutic Intervention to promote the service users recovery?
Recovery
The concept of recovery in mental health has been defined in a number of ways and intrinsically, is a contested concept. Anthony (1993) labels recovery as a process which is personal and unique. He describes it as a way of living a satisfying, hopeful life that is free from limitations caused by illness. This does not necessarily mean a life completely free from clinical symptoms and medications, but can also be a restoration of one’s self and a further development of purpose in one’s life. Taking control and responsibility for one’s life and empowerment are also …show more content…
common themes associated with recovery (Higgins and McBennett, 2007).
As recovery begins for the person, it is the person themselves who decides what recovery is and what it entails in their own life.
Solution Focused Therapy
Solution focused therapy (SFT), also referred to as Solution Focused Brief Therapy, was developed predominantly from the work of Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg and their colleagues at the Brief Family Therapy Centre in Milwaukee, USA (De Shazer et al., 1989). It is a therapy used amongst all age groups and it is utilised in the same manner for all clients. It can be applied to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression and their associated issues and is useful in both inpatient and outpatient settings. As the name suggests, solution focused therapy uses an approach based on solution building rather than the typical problem solving approach. Wand (2010) advocates that talking solely about problems and deficits are not sufficient enough to help a client to make a change. The only time SFT focuses on the past is to ascertain what abilities, if any, of the …show more content…
client have been forgotten. It deviates from all problematic feelings, cognitions and behaviours. SFT maintains that rather than the client being seen as ill, they are seen as functioning and resourceful having the ability to help themselves. SFT is a short term and goal focused therapy which encourages the client to recognise their own abilities. SFT promotes self-care in the form of the client creating their solutions themselves. The therapy explores the client’s current strengths and helps them to identify that they themselves have the needed resources, empowering them to make a change. The client is encouraged to envision a future where their problems no longer are present and the client is then guided minimally by the nurse to make that vision a reality. Hosany et al., (2007) would agree that it simply elicits, amplifies and reinforces the client’s strengths. The therapy focuses on what is going well concentrating on here and now and also to their future recovery.
Questions and compliments are the primary tools of solution focused therapy. Compliments are used in SFT in order to validate what the clients are already doing well. The therapeutic process is structured around using questions to identify client strengths, resources and their vision of a future when their problems are not present. Questions such as “the miracle question”, scaling questions, exception seeking questions, coping question are asked and problem free talk are all used in SFT.
(Role of nurse in SFT)
An integral part of the role of the nurse engaging in solution focused therapy is of course their therapeutic relationship with the client.
In order for a nurse to engage in a therapeutic intervention they must have a therapeutic relationship with their client. According to Elder et al. (2012) therapeutic relationships are central to mental health nursing and when engaging the nurse draws upon aspects from their personality, life skills and knowledge base in order to develop a connection with their client. A therapeutic relationship is developed verbally and non-verbally and centrally involves listening. Listening is crucial as it conveys to the client the nurses Engaging in the therapeutic intervention of SFT usually involves the nurse and client coming together for up to six sessions. Evans and Evans (2014) would suggest that it is worth engaging in frequent sessions although the frequency of sessions is negotiated between the nurse and client. McDonald (2007) recommends that a fixed number of sessions could limit the therapy and is unhelpful. Typically, one therapy session lasts fifty minutes and is held weekly. The overriding principle for the nurse facilitating these therapeutic interventions is to do only as much as is required to enable the client to see their own abilities. While solutions are said to be co-created between nurse and client, the nurse should intervene only to the level necessary for the individual client as it is the client themselves who have the
solutions. Therapy sessions are a collaborative talk between nurse and client, with Wand (2010) stating that the nurse respectfully acknowledge and agree that people will ultimately make their own decisions. While the experience of mental ill health is fundamentally disempowering (Barker & Stevenson 2000), this attitude of believing that the client themselves has the solutions can empower them and ultimately aids in their recovery.
(therapeutic relationship) (another 200?)
The use of “The Miracle Question” in solution focused therapy is a way to ask for a client’s desired goal in a way that communicates respect for the immensity of the problem. It is also a way for the client to come up with smaller achievable goals
It’s been about twenty five years since SFT was first introduced by de Shazer and his colleagues, and since then there has been positive but not extremely vast research carried out on the effectiveness of solution focused therapy. Franklin (2012) highlights that there has been a natural progression in the types and qualities of the studies carried out over the years. One significant study in 2000 (Gingerich & Eisengart) was a qualitative study of SFT research. They methodically searched all the bibliographic databases, dissertation abstracts and identified research studies in an effort to locate all controlled studies of SFT outcomes up to and including 1999.
One limitation highlighted by the Gingerich and Eisengart study (2000) is that most of the studies were conducted by advocates of SFT. Future efficacy studies will need to compare SFT with other practiced interventions where therapist loyalty is balanced equally between treatments.
Part Two) how may the RPN use Solution Focused Therapy as a therapeutic Intervention to promote the service users recovery?
Recovery
The concept of recovery in mental health has been defined in a number of ways and intrinsically, is a contested concept. Anthony (1993) labels recovery as a process which is personal and unique. He describes it as a way of living a satisfying, hopeful life that is free from limitations caused by illness. This does not necessarily mean a life completely free from clinical symptoms and medications, but can also be a restoration of one’s self and a further development of purpose in one’s life. Taking control and responsibility for one’s life and empowerment are also …show more content…
common themes associated with recovery (Higgins and McBennett, 2007).
As recovery begins for the person, it is the person themselves who decides what recovery is and what it entails in their own life.
Solution Focused Therapy
Solution focused therapy (SFT), also referred to as Solution Focused Brief Therapy, was developed predominantly from the work of Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg and their colleagues at the Brief Family Therapy Centre in Milwaukee, USA (De Shazer et al., 1989). It is a therapy used amongst all age groups and it is utilised in the same manner for all clients. It can be applied to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression and their associated issues and is useful in both inpatient and outpatient settings. As the name suggests, solution focused therapy uses an approach based on solution building rather than the typical problem solving approach. Wand (2010) advocates that talking solely about problems and deficits are not sufficient enough to help a client to make a change. The only time SFT focuses on the past is to ascertain what abilities, if any, of the …show more content…
client have been forgotten. It deviates from all problematic feelings, cognitions and behaviours. SFT maintains that rather than the client being seen as ill, they are seen as functioning and resourceful having the ability to help themselves. SFT is a short term and goal focused therapy which encourages the client to recognise their own abilities. SFT promotes self-care in the form of the client creating their solutions themselves. The therapy explores the client’s current strengths and helps them to identify that they themselves have the needed resources, empowering them to make a change. The client is encouraged to envision a future where their problems no longer are present and the client is then guided minimally by the nurse to make that vision a reality. Hosany et al., (2007) would agree that it simply elicits, amplifies and reinforces the client’s strengths. The therapy focuses on what is going well concentrating on here and now and also to their future recovery.
Questions and compliments are the primary tools of solution focused therapy. Compliments are used in SFT in order to validate what the clients are already doing well. The therapeutic process is structured around using questions to identify client strengths, resources and their vision of a future when their problems are not present. Questions such as “the miracle question”, scaling questions, exception seeking questions, coping question are asked and problem free talk are all used in SFT.
(Role of nurse in SFT)
An integral part of the role of the nurse engaging in solution focused therapy is of course their therapeutic relationship with the client.
In order for a nurse to engage in a therapeutic intervention they must have a therapeutic relationship with their client. According to Elder et al. (2012) therapeutic relationships are central to mental health nursing and when engaging the nurse draws upon aspects from their personality, life skills and knowledge base in order to develop a connection with their client. A therapeutic relationship is developed verbally and non-verbally and centrally involves listening. Listening is crucial as it conveys to the client the nurses Engaging in the therapeutic intervention of SFT usually involves the nurse and client coming together for up to six sessions. Evans and Evans (2014) would suggest that it is worth engaging in frequent sessions although the frequency of sessions is negotiated between the nurse and client. McDonald (2007) recommends that a fixed number of sessions could limit the therapy and is unhelpful. Typically, one therapy session lasts fifty minutes and is held weekly. The overriding principle for the nurse facilitating these therapeutic interventions is to do only as much as is required to enable the client to see their own abilities. While solutions are said to be co-created between nurse and client, the nurse should intervene only to the level necessary for the individual client as it is the client themselves who have the
solutions. Therapy sessions are a collaborative talk between nurse and client, with Wand (2010) stating that the nurse respectfully acknowledge and agree that people will ultimately make their own decisions. While the experience of mental ill health is fundamentally disempowering (Barker & Stevenson 2000), this attitude of believing that the client themselves has the solutions can empower them and ultimately aids in their recovery.
(therapeutic relationship) (another 200?)
The use of “The Miracle Question” in solution focused therapy is a way to ask for a client’s desired goal in a way that communicates respect for the immensity of the problem. It is also a way for the client to come up with smaller achievable goals
It’s been about twenty five years since SFT was first introduced by de Shazer and his colleagues, and since then there has been positive but not extremely vast research carried out on the effectiveness of solution focused therapy. Franklin (2012) highlights that there has been a natural progression in the types and qualities of the studies carried out over the years. One significant study in 2000 (Gingerich & Eisengart) was a qualitative study of SFT research. They methodically searched all the bibliographic databases, dissertation abstracts and identified research studies in an effort to locate all controlled studies of SFT outcomes up to and including 1999.
One limitation highlighted by the Gingerich and Eisengart study (2000) is that most of the studies were conducted by advocates of SFT. Future efficacy studies will need to compare SFT with other practiced interventions where therapist loyalty is balanced equally between treatments.