Compare And Contrast Solution Focused Brief Therapy Vs Cbt

Solution Focused Brief Therapy and CBT certainly have similarities, as they both focus on identifying problems and seeking solutions, but they do this in different ways. Despite their similarities, they are innately different approaches and have many distinctions.

One main difference is that SFT often focuses on solutions to a problem, while CBT focuses on the underlying cause of the problem (Young, 2021). Both approaches attempt to provide solutions for clients presenting problems, but in different ways. CBT focuses more on identifying problems and digging deeper into the underlying influences of those problems (Wenzel et al., 2016). SFT puts greater focus on solution building rather than analyzing the problem and its underlying influences (Zhang et al., 2023).

This can involve discussing and challenging cognitive distortions and automatic thoughts, as well as education about recognizing and reframing maladaptive thought patterns (Erford, 2020). SFT takes a more casual approach and uses language that is more conversational than psychoeducational (Zhang et al., 2023). Another major difference is that SFT is more future and present oriented, while CBT focuses a lot on a person’s past. CBT also addresses the present and future, but has a much greater focus on the past compared to SFT (Young, 2021).

Although both theoretical approaches focus on solving presenting problems, they both use different methods to accomplish this. These distinctions demonstrate why these two approaches are innately different.