BRIEF Practice Notes

Ockham’s razor refers to the principle, propounded by William of Ockham (? – 1347), which states that ‘plurality is never to be posited without need’. Steve de Shazer (1985) in Keys to Solution in Brief Therapy defines the principle in the following terms ‘what can be done with fewer means is done in vain with many’.

One of the comments often made by participants on workshops and courses is that learning solution focused brief therapy is like learning a new language. It is not just that the therapist is focusing her, and the client's, attention on different content but also that the approach shapes and poses questions in a very particular and rather careful way.

Many of you will be aware that Steve de Shazer who was central to the initial development of Solution Focused Brief Therapy which has underpinned the subsequent development of the broader and more general SF approach was always reluctant to explain why SFBT worked. People would ask him ‘so what is the theory that underpins Solution Focus?’

First stop would be the popular Solution Focused Brief Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques, written by BRIEF (Harvey Ratner, Evan George and Chris Iveson), published by Routledge and available direct from this organisation, which can be used as a self-supervision tool as well as a cover-to-cover read.

On the surface therapy and safeguarding are two activities that can look similar.