The original team regularly met and observed therapy sessions using a one-way mirror. When de Shazer and Berg first conceptualized the approach, solution-focused brief therapy was atheoretical, and the focus was on finding “what works in therapy.” Wary of the potentially limiting effects of assumptions or presumptions of theory-based practice approaches pertaining to clients, problems, and diagnoses, these pioneers of solution-focused brief therapy took a new and different approach in exploring the treatment process by asking one simple question: “What works in treatment?” They were interested in listening to what clients have to share, noticing what actually happens in session that helps positive improvement, and distancing themselves as much as possible from presumptions about what works as proposed by diverse treatment approaches. Both the SFBTA and the EBTA hold annual conferences, support research efforts, and further the development and promotion of solution-focused brief therapy in practice. The European Brief Therapy Association (EBTA), which was established earlier in 1993, shares similar aims to promote the development and dissemination of solution-focused brief therapy. This group, including de Shazer, Berg and 27 colleagues, founded the SFBTA in the fall of 2002. De Shazer was instrumental in the development of SFBTA because he was the one who first invited the solution-focused community to meet in 2001. With the passing of de Shazer in September 2005 and then Berg in January 2007, the stewardship of the Brief Therapy Center was transferred to the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association (SFBTA). The Brief Therapy Center was first established by de Shazer and Berg in 1978 and formally became the home of solution-focused brief therapy in 1982. The development of solution-focused brief therapy was originally inspired by the work of husband and wife Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, along with their associates at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee.

Building client base therapy