I stay in the present, I am a Solution-Focused Therapist.  What does this mean?  When I was in school, I was told I had to define my therapy type because people would ask.  I never really wanted to do this, but sure enough when I went for my first interview, I was asked my therapy style.  My answer as always been “Do I need to have just one?”  I believe in a few different therapy styles which are collaborative, narrative and solution-focused but since I have been doing this for a few years, I have gathered that I am mostly solution-focused because that is my personality!

I am a half glass full kind of gal and can always find the exception in the bunch because there always is.  Instead of talking about all the “bad” stuff in your relationship, lets talk about the “good’ stuff.  There is of course more bad than good when you come to a therapist’s office but a great way to get people talking about the good stuff is to ask them how they met.  Ah, if only we could savor that beginning of our relationship forever.  I find that question so refreshing for people and it helps them get to talking on a positive note.

One of the main parts of solution focused therapy is the “miracle question”  this is when you ask someone if they fell asleep and a miracle happened over night, what would be the first thing they see?  This also gets people talking about positive stuff and trying to make changes.  Scaling is a major part and I like to use scales especially with couples so I can engage them on how they are feeling separately but also together.  Both of these tools are great for staying positive.

Another part of this great therapy style of mine is staying in the here and now.  Why is it that we need to work on the past?  My answer to this is “If it is in the past then it should stay there, it if is affecting you now then lets talk about it.”  The past is not considered the past if you are still dealing with issues from it, so lets get working on it and push it aside back into the past!

I find this method to be refreshing and necessary to get to the bottom of the issue as quickly as possible because after all, isn’t that the common goal for both of us!