When life feels overwhelming, it’s easy to get stuck focusing on problems. While understanding challenges is important, spending too much time analyzing the past can sometimes leave us feeling drained or hopeless.
Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT), also called Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), takes a different approach. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, it emphasizes what’s possible. By highlighting your strengths, resources, and goals, SFT helps you build solutions that move you toward the life you want.
At Tiny Therapy Collective, we provide online SFT across Ontario, making it easy to access goal-oriented, empowering therapy no matter where you live.
Who is SFT For?
SFT is flexible and works well for a wide variety of concerns. It’s particularly helpful if you are:
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Feeling stuck in cycles of stress or anxiety
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Going through life transitions such as career changes, parenting challenges, or relationship shifts
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Seeking short-term therapy with a focus on clear goals
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Looking for practical, action-oriented support
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Wanting to build confidence by recognizing your own strengths
Because SFT is brief and focused, it’s often used by people who want to make meaningful changes in just a few sessions.
How Solution-Focused Therapy Works
In SFT, the therapist and client work together as partners. The process often includes:
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Defining goals – Identifying what you’d like to be different in your life.
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Exploring strengths – Recognizing times when you’ve successfully coped or adapted.
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Scaling questions – Rating where you are now versus where you’d like to be, and identifying small steps to move forward.
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The miracle question – Imagining how your life would look if your problem was solved, then working backward to identify achievable steps.
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Building solutions – Focusing on what’s working and how to expand it, rather than what’s wrong.
Sessions are collaborative, encouraging, and centered on your vision of the future.
Benefits of Solution-Focused Therapy
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Brief and effective: Many people notice positive changes within 6–12 sessions.
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Empowering: Emphasizes your strengths and resources rather than focusing on deficits.
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Practical: Provides concrete strategies you can apply right away.
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Goal-oriented: Helps you move from where you are to where you want to be.
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Flexible: Can be integrated with other therapies like CBT or mindfulness.
Why SFT Works Well Online
Because SFT is conversational, collaborative, and focused on clear goals, it translates seamlessly into online therapy.
Advantages of online SFT include:
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Accessing therapy from a comfortable space, which can reduce stress.
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Flexibility to fit sessions into your schedule.
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Ability to work with therapists across Ontario who specialize in goal-focused care.
Everyday Examples of SFT in Action
Here are a few ways SFT skills might show up in everyday life:
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Workplace stress: Instead of focusing only on what’s overwhelming, identifying times when you’ve handled similar stress well and what you did that worked.
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Parenting challenges: Using scaling questions to track small improvements and celebrate progress, rather than only seeing setbacks.
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Personal goals: Applying the miracle question to imagine your preferred future and breaking it into small, achievable steps.
These techniques make it easier to stay motivated and recognize that change is possible.
SFT vs. Other Approaches
While therapies like CBT focus on changing thoughts and behaviours, and DBT emphasizes building coping skills, SFT focuses on identifying and expanding what’s already working.
At Tiny Therapy Collective, we often integrate SFT with other evidence-based methods to provide the best of both worlds — practical short-term tools plus deeper strategies for long-term growth.
Benefits of SFT at a Glance
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Short-term and cost-effective
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Focuses on goals, strengths, and resources
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Encouraging and collaborative style
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Practical and action-oriented
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Effective online across Ontario
Getting Started with SFT in Ontario
If you’re ready to focus less on problems and more on solutions, Solution-Focused Therapy may be the right fit for you.
At Tiny Therapy Collective, our therapists provide collaborative, empowering SFT therapy designed to help you recognize your strengths and take meaningful steps toward your goals.
Interested in Solution-Focused Therapy? Book a free 15-minute consultation today and start building the future you want.
