My Views on Giving Therapy Clients Homework HAS CHANGED

Sitting at my desk, and we just wrapped up doing one of our weekly online lectures that we do for our Solution Focused Universe community every week. Somebody asked me a question, and it challenged the way that I thought about how I practice Solution Focused Brief Therapy, and how I teach it. And I wanted to share here because I think as our work evolves, we owe it to you to be honest, transparent, and always current and clear.

In the early days of Solution Focused Brief Therapy, the practice was very much about giving an intervention at the end of the session. I mean, long before I came to this approach, that’s what Solution Focused Brief Therapy was all about. They used to have this thing called formula first, session, task. And basically it was the way that they created a kind of like a homework assignment at the end of the therapy session.

Now, when I started studying Solution Focused Brief Therapy in the early 2000s, there was still a heavy emphasis on homework, and tasks, and what you would ask the client to do at the end of the session. But shortly thereafter, this amazing organization in London called Brief was being run by Chris Ives and Harvey Ratner and Evan George. They were the ones that I first heard say, “We don’t ask our clients to do anything at the end of the session.”

They literally said, we view it (what the client does after the session) as none of our business. First ones ever heard say that. And it blew me away. And they would say, “According to research, the presence of a directive from the therapist doesn’t increase or decrease outcomes.”

And so for a long time, that’s how I practiced. At the end of my sessions, I would just say to my client, “Thanks for coming, I appreciate it. Look forward to seeing you next time.”

Over time, my work has evolved, and I needed a way to wrap up the session. And sometimes I will ask the client to do something. Not very directive. And it’s usually something like, “Hey, would you mind noticing some of the signs of the things that we’ve talked about? Hey, would you mind paying attention to certain changes happening in your life based upon this conversation.” Stuff like that.

And the person attending the event yesterday was like, “Hey, I read in one of your books a while ago, that you don’t give tasks.” But during yesterday’s lecture, I did a live demonstration, and in the live demonstration I asked my client to pay attention to something. And [the person attending the event yesterday] said, “So what’s happened?”

And now I think as my work evolves and shifts, I would say I do ask my client to do things at the end of session again. Usually just as simple as noticing something. I do ask my client to pay attention to things. But I don’t say like, “Go home and I want you to exercise this week, I want you to journal every day.” I don’t say those kinds of directives. And these days I think I draw a distinction between how I’m being directive, and using the session content to ask my client to pay attention to certain things.

I’m gonna work on explaining that, and of course that’s going to be a part of our teaching and writing. So much of [other] therapy has been about what happens ‘between the sessions’, and Solution Focused Brief Therapy is very much about what happens in session. And that still remains true for me.

I remember watching Evan George, who in my opinion is one of the greatest psychotherapists to ever live, and certainly one of the greatest Solution Focused Brief Therapists to ever live.

I think we all need a way to wrap up the session so that, the phrase that somebody used in the lecture was, to tie a bow on the session.

I remember watching Evan. Again, brilliant man. And he said to the client, “The next time we meet, the first thing I’m going to ask you is ‘What’s been better?'” And he said, “So sometimes it’s helpful if you think about how you’ll answer that question, between now and the next time we [meet], because it’ll help you prepare to answer that question. But the next time I see you, the very first thing I’m going to ask you is ‘What’s been better?’ So just go live your life thinking about answering that question.”

It’s such a brilliant way of shifting that client’s perspectives, shifting what they will notice. And I would say that’s what my ‘end of sessions’ are like these days, around shifting what the client will notice.

I read somewhere one time that “A change is only a change if it’s noticed.” And over the years I’ve noticed a lot of people will have significant change, life altering change, but they didn’t notice as it was happening. So then they come into session and when I say “So what’s been better?”, they start catching it, “Oh, this, this, this, this and this. And then in retrospect it’s like, wow, things have been better.”

But I follow Evan’s lead here and if I can say something to you in the session, not to change how you live, not to tell you what to do, but to shift what you pay attention to, then you’ll start catching more of those changes in real time, and they’ll have even more of an impact.

So that’s my current thinking about ending a session, giving a task or not, and how we do that.

So, hope that helps, and hope that’s more clear.