Solution Focused Therapy in Surrey, BC
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Most people who come to counselling are not short on insight into what is wrong. They are tired, stuck, and unsure what to actually do differently on Tuesday morning.
Solution Focused Therapy, also called Solution Focused Brief Therapy or SFBT, is a counselling approach built around that gap. Instead of organizing sessions around the history and causes of a problem, your counsellor helps you describe what you want your life to look like, notice what already works even a little, and choose next steps small enough to actually take.
It is a recognized therapeutic model with its own research base, not a pep talk. At Sojourn Counselling and Neurofeedback in Cloverdale, Surrey, it is offered by Katherine Ouano, a Registered Clinical Counsellor, in person and by secure video across British Columbia.
You can read about how Katherine works further down this page and book with her directly, or answer five questions if you would rather be pointed in the right direction.
What Is Solution Focused Brief Therapy
Solution Focused Brief Therapy is a goal directed counselling approach in which the client and counsellor work out a clear picture of the client’s preferred future, then build toward it using the strengths, exceptions and resources already present in the client’s life. It was developed by Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg and their colleagues at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee, beginning in the late 1970s, and has been studied and practised internationally since.
Two ideas sit underneath it.
The first is that you are the expert on your own life. You know your circumstances, your relationships, your culture, your limits and what you actually want. Your counsellor brings skill in asking the kinds of questions that make that knowledge usable.
The second is that change does not require a complete explanation of the problem. Useful movement often starts with a detailed description of what you want instead, and with attention to the times things already go a little better.
What brief actually means
Brief refers to the intent of the model, not a promise about your timeline. Solution focused work aims to use no more sessions than are useful, and to check in regularly on whether counselling is helping. Some people find a handful of sessions is enough for what they came in for. Others continue longer, or move into a different approach as their goals change.
No responsible counsellor can tell you in advance how many sessions you will need, and this page will not try. What your counsellor can do is review progress with you openly, so that continuing is a decision you make rather than a default.
How Does Solution Focused Therapy Work
Describing your preferred future
Rather than starting with “tell me about the problem,” your counsellor is likely to ask some version of “what would you like to be different?” and then keep going until the answer is concrete.
Not “I want to be less anxious,” but what you would be doing on a morning when anxiety has less say. Who would notice. What they would see. What you would do first. That level of detail matters, because a described future is something you can recognize when pieces of it start showing up.
Finding exceptions
Exceptions are the times the problem is absent, milder, or handled differently: the week that went better, the conversation that did not escalate, the morning you got up anyway.
Exceptions are not evidence that the problem is imaginary or that you should have been able to fix it yourself. They are information. When you and your counsellor look closely at what was different in those moments, you often find something repeatable that was invisible until you named it.
Recognizing strengths and resources
Resources are broader than personality traits. They include the people who show up for you, your values, your cultural and spiritual knowledge, your work and problem solving skills, what you have survived, and the strategies you have already been using to keep going, whether or not you have given yourself credit for them.
Building small, workable next steps
Steps are chosen with you, not prescribed from a template. They are deliberately modest, because small changes are the ones that actually get taken, and because a step you complete tells you something useful about what helps.
What Happens in a Solution Focused Therapy Session
A first session usually starts with what you want out of the appointment itself, and moves into what you would want to be different in your life. From there a session may include:
- clarifying your best hopes for counselling
- describing, in observable detail, what improvement would look like
- exploring how you have been coping and what has helped
- identifying times the problem had less influence
- using scaling questions to make progress and confidence concrete
- agreeing on a next step that feels doable
- in later sessions, reviewing what changed and whether the work is still useful
This is a description, not a checklist. A good session follows the conversation, and your counsellor will adjust the pace to you.
The miracle question
The miracle question is one way of getting to a detailed description of a preferred future. It asks you to imagine that overnight, without your noticing, things changed for the better, and then to describe what you would notice first the next morning.
It is a way of thinking, not a wish. Nobody expects the change to happen overnight, and your counsellor may never use this particular question if another route works better for you.
Scaling questions
Scaling questions ask you to place something on a scale, often zero to ten: how close you are to what you want, how confident you feel, how much of a step you are ready for.
The number itself is not a grade. What matters is the conversation it opens: why a four and not a two, and what a five would look like in practice.
Does Solution Focused Therapy Ignore the Past
No. This is the most common misunderstanding of the approach, and it is worth being direct about.
A solution focused counsellor will hear your history, your losses, and how you have been affected. What distinguishes the approach is where therapeutic attention is organized once that is understood: toward what you want and what helps, rather than toward a detailed reconstruction of causes.
It is also not positive thinking. You are not asked to reframe pain as opportunity, to perform optimism, or to leave difficult feelings out of the room. Being asked what you want is not the same as being told that what happened does not matter.
If your goals genuinely require processing traumatic memories, that is different work. Sojourn offers EMDR therapy and other trauma focused approaches, and your counsellor can talk through what fits.
What Can Solution Focused Therapy Help With
Solution focused work may support people managing:
- anxiety, stress and feeling overwhelmed, alongside counselling for anxiety
- low mood and low motivation, alongside depression counselling
- life transitions, decisions, confidence and boundaries
- relationship and family patterns, alongside family counselling
- school stress and emotional regulation in younger clients, alongside child and youth counselling
Solution focused questions can be adapted well for children and teens, who often respond better to describing what they want than to analyzing what is wrong. Katherine works with children, youth and families as well as adults.
Most solution focused work at Sojourn happens through individual counselling in Surrey or online.
Is Solution Focused Therapy Right for Me
This approach tends to suit people who:
- want counselling to feel practical and collaborative
- have some sense of a direction they want to move in
- would rather build on what works than analyze what went wrong
- prefer not to retell their whole history in order to get help
- like being able to see concrete signs of progress
You do not need a clear goal before your first session. Working out what you actually want is often the first piece of the work, and it is a reasonable thing to arrive without.
When another approach may fit better
Solution focused work is not right for everyone, and it is not a fit for every stage. Another or an additional approach is often more appropriate when someone needs:
- more time to build safety and trust before goal setting is useful
- dedicated trauma stabilization or memory processing
- structured risk or crisis assessment
- medical or psychiatric care
- longer term or more intensive support
- a different model that better matches their goals
Sojourn counsellors will talk this through with you rather than fitting you to a method. Most of our team practise integratively, and the plan can change as your goals do.
If you are in immediate danger or crisis, call 911, or reach the BC Crisis Line at 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433). Counselling appointments are not an emergency service.
How Solution Focused Therapy Differs From Other Approaches
Solution Focused Therapy and CBT
Both are structured, collaborative and goal oriented, and both are usually shorter term than open ended therapy. They are still distinct models.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy examines the relationships among thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and often uses specific cognitive and behavioural exercises between sessions.
Solution Focused Therapy spends its time on your preferred future, the exceptions to the problem, the resources you already have, and the next observable step.
Neither is better in general. They fit different preferences and different goals, and some counsellors draw on both.
Approaches that explore history in more depth
Some models place sustained attention on origins, unconscious patterns, bodily experience or meaning making over time. Solution focused work can acknowledge all of that while organizing sessions differently. If in depth exploration is what you are looking for, our person centred counselling and process oriented psychotherapy may suit you better.
Full SFBT and solution focused questions inside integrative therapy
This distinction is worth knowing when you choose a counsellor. Some clinicians practise SFBT as their primary model. Others, including Katherine, integrate solution-focused questions into individualized therapy alongside other approaches.
If a strictly solution focused course of therapy is what you want, say so in your first session. Your counsellor can tell you honestly whether that is how they work.
Is Solution Focused Brief Therapy Evidence Based
There is a substantial and growing research base for SFBT, and it is reasonable to describe it as an evidence supported approach, with some qualifications worth knowing.
An umbrella review published in Psychotherapy Research in 2025 pooled 25 systematic reviews, including 15 meta-analyses, covering SFBT across a wide range of populations and settings. It found the strongest support for adult depression, general mental health outcomes and progress toward personal goals, and no evidence of harm. It also noted that confidence in the evidence varies considerably between conditions, and that more rigorous trials are needed.
What the research does not establish is that SFBT works faster than other therapies, resolves problems in a set number of sessions, or is the right choice for every concern. Claims like those are common online and are not supported.
Sources: Żak & Pękala (2025), Effectiveness of solution-focused brief therapy: an umbrella review, Psychotherapy Research, 35(7), 1043–1055; Solution Focused Therapy Institute research overview.
Counsellors at Sojourn Who Use Solution Focused Therapy
Katherine names solution-focused work among the approaches she integrates. She does not practise it as a sole model, which for most clients is a strength: the approach can be used where it fits, and set aside where something else is needed.
Katherine Ouano, MEd, RCC
Registered Clinical Counsellor · individuals, couples, children and youth, families
Katherine integrates solution-focused work alongside Emotionally Focused Therapy, DBT, CBT, mindfulness based and trauma informed approaches, choosing what fits each client’s goals. She has formal training in Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (Levels 1 and 2), DBT (Levels 1 and 2) and CBT (Levels 1, 2 and 3), and has spent about 25 years working with children, youth and families. Evening and Saturday appointments, in person in Cloverdale and online across BC.
Read Katherine’s profile · Book with Katherine
Katherine is a Registered Clinical Counsellor registered with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors, which means she meets the education, supervision and ethical standards the RCC designation requires; if that designation is new to you, our guide explains what a Registered Clinical Counsellor is. Sessions with an RCC are $160 for 50 minutes; see counselling fees and insurance for direct billing and extended health details.
If Katherine’s schedule does not work for you, our full team offers a range of approaches, and other counsellors draw on goal focused work within their own models. Find a counsellor who fits your goals or browse all Sojourn counsellors.
Solution Focused Counselling in Surrey and Online Across BC
Sojourn Counselling and Neurofeedback is in Cloverdale, Surrey, with free parking on site and easy access from Langley, White Rock and South Surrey.
Sojourn Counselling and Neurofeedback
Unit 211, 17696 65A Avenue
Surrey, BC V3S 5N4
Phone: 778-381-5868
Email: info@sojourncounselling.com
Appointments are available in person in Surrey, or by video and telephone. Online counselling across British Columbia works well for solution focused sessions, which are conversation based and do not depend on being in the room.
Frequently Asked Questions About Solution Focused Therapy
Is Solution Focused Therapy the same as SFBT?
Yes. Solution Focused Therapy, Solution Focused Brief Therapy and SFBT all refer to the same approach. Some counsellors drop the word brief because it is often misread as meaning rushed or limited.
How many sessions of Solution Focused Therapy will I need?
There is no set number. The approach aims to use no more sessions than are useful, and your counsellor will review progress with you as you go. Some people come for a few sessions; others continue longer or move into a different approach.
What is the miracle question?
It is a question that invites you to describe, in detail, what you would notice if things had changed for the better. It is used to build a clear picture of what you actually want, not to suggest that change happens overnight.
What are scaling questions in therapy?
Scaling questions ask you to rate something, such as progress, confidence or readiness, usually from zero to ten. The value is in the conversation about why that number and what the next one up would look like, not in the score itself.
Does Solution Focused Therapy ignore the past?
No. Your history and how it has affected you are heard and taken seriously. The difference is that sessions are organized around what you want and what helps, rather than around a detailed reconstruction of causes.
Is Solution Focused Therapy just positive thinking?
No. You are not asked to reframe difficulty as opportunity or to perform optimism. It is a structured therapeutic model with a research base, and difficult emotions are welcome in the room.
How is SFBT different from CBT?
CBT examines how thoughts, feelings and behaviours interact, often with structured exercises. SFBT concentrates on your preferred future, exceptions to the problem, existing resources and small next steps. Both are goal oriented, and neither is better in general.
Can Solution Focused Therapy help with anxiety or depression?
It may. Research support is strongest for adult depression and general mental health outcomes. For either concern specifically, see our anxiety counselling and depression therapy pages, where the full range of approaches is described.
Can I have Solution Focused Therapy online in BC?
Yes. Katherine offers solution focused sessions by secure video or telephone anywhere in British Columbia.
When might Solution Focused Therapy not be the right fit?
When someone needs more time to build safety before goal setting is useful, dedicated trauma processing, crisis or risk assessment, medical or psychiatric care, or longer term support. Your counsellor will raise this with you rather than pressing on with an approach that is not working.
Book a Solution Focused Counselling Session
You do not need to know which therapeutic approach you need before booking. Most people arrive with a situation, not a modality.
Book with Katherine · Help me choose a counsellor
If you are unsure where to start, call 778-381-5868 or email info@sojourncounselling.com and we will help you find someone whose experience, approach and availability fit what you need.