Solution Focused Practitioners’ experiences of facilitating post traumatic growth during brief therapy

Abstract

It is understood that trauma is something that can affect people in life. Trauma is a term that is readily used to acknowledge the experience of someone exposed to an adverse life event. There are various psychological therapies that help individuals to overcome trauma experiences. The unique contribution of this study is that little is known about the way in which Solution Focussed Brief Therapy (SFBT) can help clients coming to terms with such an experience, because it can help to facilitate post traumatic growth. SFBT is strengths based and is part of the positive psychology movement, where there is more of an emphasis on client resilience, rather than alleviating distress. SFBT offers a different way of working to the approaches already being utilised in this field. The current study aimed to provide insight into the experiences of Solution Focused Practitioners facilitating post traumatic growth during brief therapy, using qualitative methods. The study explored the experiences of a homogenous sample of six Solution Focused Practitioners; all had worked with trauma and were using SFBT in their working practice. Responses to questions asked during semi structured interviews were framed by the setting in which the practitioners worked, because they all operated from a centre known to the researcher. However, despite the potential influence of the setting, the researcher gained honest insight into the application of SFBT to trauma. Semi structured interviews were conducted and the interviews were transcribed. Verbatim transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and from this four main themes were found: (i) Who am I? – Becoming Solution Focused; (ii) A problem world where trauma exists; (iii) A positive cocoon where growth can occur; (iv) The longevity of the approach – a big fish in a small pond. Further exploration of these themes along with their subthemes is included in the paper. Research literature relevant to this study is discussed and implications for further research and practice are also taken into consideration.