Elliott Connie
Founder/PresidentElliott Connie, MA, LPC is a Psychotherapist that practices in Arlington, Texas. He has worked with thousands of individuals, couples, and families applying the solution...
SFBT as a brand has a massive issue when it comes to one singular word that causes clients to misunderstand what it\’s all about and I think it\’s high time we do something about that.
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2024 was a remarkable year in the field of Solution Focused Brief Therapy, and even for my training organization, as we made some pretty cool discoveries in our work, innovations in what we do and how we train, and how we teach psychotherapists. But probably the biggest thing is gaining a further understanding on the problem that Solution Focused Brief Therapy has as a brand.
Solution Focused Brief Therapy has a massive branding problem and I want to dive deep into it. I\’ve actually never talked about this publicly. We just started talking about it on my team, I would say in the last year or two, and even more this past year. But branding is what people think when they hear a name, right?
A great example of this is what do you think when you hear McDonald\’s? You immediately think of fast food, you think of good french fries. Lots of times we think of unhealthy things. That\’s branding. When someone hears the name, what\’s the immediate thing that we think about?
Another good example is Walmart. When you hear the name Walmart, what\’s the immediate thing that you think about? That\’s branding.
So when you hear Solution Focused Brief Therapy, what\’s the immediate thing that you think about?
In my role in this field, I spend lots of times in front of large audiences talking about Solution Focused Brief Therapy and introducing people to Solution Focused Brief Therapy. One of the things that stood out to me is that when you say Solution Focused Brief Therapy to a layperson that really just wants to get therapy, they hone in on the word \’brief\’ and they think it\’s a temporary treatment, and they think it\’s not for something that would create long term change.
Neither of those two things are true. But that\’s what people think when they hear the name Solution Focused Brief Therapy. And the reason is when most people come to therapy, they\’re not really going to therapy. They\’re going to get a lesson on mental health. So they want to be taught how to be better in their mental health. But the truth is, good therapy, Solution Focused or otherwise, is actually all about healing from the things that have happened in your life so you can carry on moving forward in a way that fits with how you want your future to look like. That\’s what therapy should be about.
But people have the expectation that they\’re going to be taught how to be better with their mental health, and that\’s not really therapy. So what do we do as Solution Focused Brief Therapists? We have to understand that this is what people think when they hear that word. And then we have to be able to advocate for the work that we do, and we have to be able to advocate for how we do it.
That\’s why I do some of the trainings that I do. If you\’re watching this video close to when I released it, I\’ve got a training coming up in a couple of days that\’s going to be all about diving deep into this issue and other issues that were highlighted for us in 2024. Because it\’s really important that you understand how to do this work, and it\’s really important you understand how to advocate for the work that you do.
There is nothing I\’ve ever seen like watching someone heal from the things that caused their life disruption. And there\’s nothing more powerful to help people do that than increasing hope, and increasing resilience, and helping them focus on what\’s brilliant about them, rather than what\’s wrong with them.
I was just being interviewed on a podcast earlier today with a guy named Steven, and Steven was asking me all these questions about what I think is really important in life and what I wish somebody had told me earlier. The number one thing I said to him is, I wish somebody told me earlier that I was brilliant. Now, I don\’t say that arrogantly, like I\’m brilliant, but what I mean by with that statement is I grew up hearing so much criticism, like lots of people hearing so much criticism, that you become heightened aware of your flaws and less aware of your brilliances. And the thing about human beings is every human being on the planet earth has both flaws and brilliance.
But most of us, we\’re too aware of our flaws and not nearly as aware as we should be of our brilliance. And I\’ve never seen anything more powerful than Solution Focused Brief Therapy to help people become more aware of their brilliance and then live their life from the perspective of those brilliances. Nothing is more transformative than that. And that\’s what Solution Focused Brief Therapy is all about.
So this year, 2024 was all about us getting better and more honed and more clear about what it is we do in this field. And that\’s why we\’re going to do this training. So I\’ll put the link here in the chat. So if you\’re watching this around the time that we\’re doing it, click on the link in the description of this video or somewhere around and you can sign up for the training.
And if not, subscribe to my YouTube channel. I make lots of videos. My team and I, we make lots of videos on this channel because we want you to get really good at practicing Solution Focused Brief Therapy and the art of helping people heal.
That is my way of helping society to be better. And I\’m so glad you\’re here, part of this journey.
Thank you for watching and I hope to see you in the training, hope to see you in future trainings, and I hope to see you at more videos going forward.
Elliott Connie, MA, LPC is a Psychotherapist that practices in Arlington, Texas. He has worked with thousands of individuals, couples, and families applying the solution focused approach to help them move their lives from the current problems towards their desired futures. As well as being the Founder and President of The Solution Focused Universe, he is recognized around the world speaking at national and international conferences and events throughout the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, England, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, Holland, Canada, and Asia training practitioners to apply solution focused questions and techniques in their work. He has authored or co-authored 4 books including “The Art of Solution Focused Therapy”, ‘Solution Building in Couples Therapy”, ‘The Solution Focused Marriage’, and ‘Solution-Focused Brief Therapy with Clients Managing Trauma’.
