Brief-therapy, solution-focused approach, therapist is entering the therapy process by taking a “one step down” position in relation to the applicant. He avoids appearing as having authority, or “wisdom”, because in taking this position it is a risk in moving the client away. Although the applicant comes with difficulties, seeking help and protection, the therapist must return the responsibility to the applicant as soon as possible. The therapist’s responsibility, according to brief therapy, solution-oriented approach, is to “release” the applicant as soon as possible from the therapist’s responsibility. The therapist, from the very first meeting, should start to return the responsibility to the customer, in various ways, such as telling the applicant that his experience about the particular issue is not as expected, or tell the applicant that it is right to access treatment with some skepticism about the results, etc
A brief therapy, solution-focused, oriented therapist is taking a “one step down” tactic relation to the client to allow him to open without hesitation. The question is how much the client wants to open. The therapist should remember that the client brings a difficulty, and he should make him “sweat” (realy want) to solve it in order to have confidence he did it by himself and not the therapist. The question here is, of course, how to relate to authority? The answer is, that we have to consider how power is beneficial, when and in what situations.
Practitioners, and brief therapy, solution-focused oriented therapists, have great confidence in themselves but they do not show it. They get the power from the other, the customer, from the necessity that the other has to handle the problem. It seems that the great achievement of the brief therapy, solution focused, oriented therapist is, that the customer will get change without ascribing the achievement to the therapist’s involvement