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What Is Problem-Solving Therapy?

Verywell / Madelyn Goodnight

Problem-Solving Therapy Techniques

How effective is problem-solving therapy, things to consider, how to get started.

Problem-solving therapy is a brief intervention that provides people with the tools they need to identify and solve problems that arise from big and small life stressors. It aims to improve your overall quality of life and reduce the negative impact of psychological and physical illness.

Problem-solving therapy can be used to treat depression , among other conditions. It can be administered by a doctor or mental health professional and may be combined with other treatment approaches.

At a Glance

Problem-solving therapy is a short-term treatment used to help people who are experiencing depression, stress, PTSD, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and other mental health problems develop the tools they need to deal with challenges. This approach teaches people to identify problems, generate solutions, and implement those solutions. Let's take a closer look at how problem-solving therapy can help people be more resilient and adaptive in the face of stress.

Problem-solving therapy is based on a model that takes into account the importance of real-life problem-solving. In other words, the key to managing the impact of stressful life events is to know how to address issues as they arise. Problem-solving therapy is very practical in its approach and is only concerned with the present, rather than delving into your past.

This form of therapy can take place one-on-one or in a group format and may be offered in person or online via telehealth . Sessions can be anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours long. 

Key Components

There are two major components that make up the problem-solving therapy framework:

• Applying a positive problem-solving orientation to your life
• Using problem-solving skills

A positive problem-solving orientation means viewing things in an optimistic light, embracing self-efficacy , and accepting the idea that problems are a normal part of life. Problem-solving skills are behaviors that you can rely on to help you navigate conflict, even during times of stress. This includes skills like:

• Knowing how to identify a problem
• Defining the problem in a helpful way
• Trying to understand the problem more deeply
• Setting goals related to the problem
• Generating alternative, creative solutions to the problem
• Choosing the best course of action
• Implementing the choice you have made
• Evaluating the outcome to determine next steps

Problem-solving therapy is all about training you to become adaptive in your life so that you will start to see problems as challenges to be solved instead of insurmountable obstacles. It also means that you will recognize the action that is required to engage in effective problem-solving techniques.

Planful Problem-Solving

One problem-solving technique, called planful problem-solving, involves following a series of steps to fix issues in a healthy, constructive way:

• Problem definition and formulation : This step involves identifying the real-life problem that needs to be solved and formulating it in a way that allows you to generate potential solutions.
• Generation of alternative solutions : This stage involves coming up with various potential solutions to the problem at hand. The goal in this step is to brainstorm options to creatively address the life stressor in ways that you may not have previously considered.
• Decision-making strategies : This stage involves discussing different strategies for making decisions as well as identifying obstacles that may get in the way of solving the problem at hand.
• Solution implementation and verification : This stage involves implementing a chosen solution and then verifying whether it was effective in addressing the problem.

Other Techniques

Other techniques your therapist may go over include:

• Problem-solving multitasking , which helps you learn to think clearly and solve problems effectively even during times of stress
• Stop, slow down, think, and act (SSTA) , which is meant to encourage you to become more emotionally mindful when faced with conflict
• Healthy thinking and imagery , which teaches you how to embrace more positive self-talk while problem-solving

What Problem-Solving Therapy Can Help With

Problem-solving therapy addresses life stress issues and focuses on helping you find solutions to concrete issues. This approach can be applied to problems associated with various psychological and physiological symptoms.

Mental Health Issues

Problem-solving therapy may help address mental health issues, like:

• Chronic stress due to accumulating minor issues
• Complications associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI)
• Emotional distress
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Problems associated with a chronic disease like cancer, heart disease, or diabetes
• Self-harm and feelings of hopelessness
• Substance use
• Suicidal ideation

Specific Life Challenges

This form of therapy is also helpful for dealing with specific life problems, such as:

• Death of a loved one
• Dissatisfaction at work
• Everyday life stressors
• Family problems
• Financial difficulties
• Relationship conflicts

Your doctor or mental healthcare professional will be able to advise whether problem-solving therapy could be helpful for your particular issue. In general, if you are struggling with specific, concrete problems that you are having trouble finding solutions for, problem-solving therapy could be helpful for you.

Benefits of Problem-Solving Therapy

The skills learned in problem-solving therapy can be helpful for managing all areas of your life. These can include:

• Being able to identify which stressors trigger your negative emotions (e.g., sadness, anger)
• Confidence that you can handle problems that you face
• Having a systematic approach on how to deal with life's problems
• Having a toolbox of strategies to solve the issues you face
• Increased confidence to find creative solutions
• Knowing how to identify which barriers will impede your progress
• Knowing how to manage emotions when they arise
• Reduced avoidance and increased action-taking
• The ability to accept life problems that can't be solved
• The ability to make effective decisions
• The development of patience (realizing that not all problems have a "quick fix")

Problem-solving therapy can help people feel more empowered to deal with the problems they face in their lives. Rather than feeling overwhelmed when stressors begin to take a toll, this therapy introduces new coping skills that can boost self-efficacy and resilience .

Other Types of Therapy

Other similar types of therapy include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) . While these therapies work to change thinking and behaviors, they work a bit differently. Both CBT and SFBT are less structured than problem-solving therapy and may focus on broader issues. CBT focuses on identifying and changing maladaptive thoughts, and SFBT works to help people look for solutions and build self-efficacy based on strengths.

This form of therapy was initially developed to help people combat stress through effective problem-solving, and it was later adapted to address clinical depression specifically. Today, much of the research on problem-solving therapy deals with its effectiveness in treating depression.

Problem-solving therapy has been shown to help depression in: 

• Older adults
• People coping with serious illnesses like cancer

Problem-solving therapy also appears to be effective as a brief treatment for depression, offering benefits in as little as six to eight sessions with a therapist or another healthcare professional. This may make it a good option for someone unable to commit to a lengthier treatment for depression.

Problem-solving therapy is not a good fit for everyone. It may not be effective at addressing issues that don't have clear solutions, like seeking meaning or purpose in life. Problem-solving therapy is also intended to treat specific problems, not general habits or thought patterns .

In general, it's also important to remember that problem-solving therapy is not a primary treatment for mental disorders. If you are living with the symptoms of a serious mental illness such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia , you may need additional treatment with evidence-based approaches for your particular concern.

Problem-solving therapy is best aimed at someone who has a mental or physical issue that is being treated separately, but who also has life issues that go along with that problem that has yet to be addressed.

For example, it could help if you can't clean your house or pay your bills because of your depression, or if a cancer diagnosis is interfering with your quality of life.

Your doctor may be able to recommend therapists in your area who utilize this approach, or they may offer it themselves as part of their practice. You can also search for a problem-solving therapist with help from the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Society of Clinical Psychology .

If receiving problem-solving therapy from a doctor or mental healthcare professional is not an option for you, you could also consider implementing it as a self-help strategy using a workbook designed to help you learn problem-solving skills on your own.

During your first session, your therapist may spend some time explaining their process and approach. They may ask you to identify the problem you’re currently facing, and they’ll likely discuss your goals for therapy .

Keep In Mind

Problem-solving therapy may be a short-term intervention that's focused on solving a specific issue in your life. If you need further help with something more pervasive, it can also become a longer-term treatment option.

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Shang P, Cao X, You S, Feng X, Li N, Jia Y. Problem-solving therapy for major depressive disorders in older adults: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials .  Aging Clin Exp Res . 2021;33(6):1465-1475. doi:10.1007/s40520-020-01672-3

Cuijpers P, Wit L de, Kleiboer A, Karyotaki E, Ebert DD. Problem-solving therapy for adult depression: An updated meta-analysis . Eur Psychiatry . 2018;48(1):27-37. doi:10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.11.006

Nezu AM, Nezu CM, D'Zurilla TJ. Problem-Solving Therapy: A Treatment Manual . New York; 2013. doi:10.1891/9780826109415.0001

Owens D, Wright-Hughes A, Graham L, et al. Problem-solving therapy rather than treatment as usual for adults after self-harm: a pragmatic, feasibility, randomised controlled trial (the MIDSHIPS trial) .  Pilot Feasibility Stud . 2020;6:119. doi:10.1186/s40814-020-00668-0

Sorsdahl K, Stein DJ, Corrigall J, et al. The efficacy of a blended motivational interviewing and problem solving therapy intervention to reduce substance use among patients presenting for emergency services in South Africa: A randomized controlled trial . Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy . 2015;10(1):46. doi:doi.org/10.1186/s13011-015-0042-1

Margolis SA, Osborne P, Gonzalez JS. Problem solving . In: Gellman MD, ed. Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine . Springer International Publishing; 2020:1745-1747. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_208

Kirkham JG, Choi N, Seitz DP. Meta-analysis of problem solving therapy for the treatment of major depressive disorder in older adults . Int J Geriatr Psychiatry . 2016;31(5):526-535. doi:10.1002/gps.4358

Garand L, Rinaldo DE, Alberth MM, et al. Effects of problem solving therapy on mental health outcomes in family caregivers of persons with a new diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or early dementia: A randomized controlled trial . Am J Geriatr Psychiatry . 2014;22(8):771-781. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2013.07.007

Noyes K, Zapf AL, Depner RM, et al. Problem-solving skills training in adult cancer survivors: Bright IDEAS-AC pilot study .  Cancer Treat Res Commun . 2022;31:100552. doi:10.1016/j.ctarc.2022.100552

Albert SM, King J, Anderson S, et al. Depression agency-based collaborative: effect of problem-solving therapy on risk of common mental disorders in older adults with home care needs . The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry . 2019;27(6):619-624. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2019.01.002

By Arlin Cuncic, MA Arlin Cuncic, MA, is the author of The Anxiety Workbook and founder of the website About Social Anxiety. She has a Master's degree in clinical psychology.

Problem Solving

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Introduction & Theoretical Background

Problem Solving is a helpful intervention whenever clients present with difficulties, dilemmas, and conundrums, or when they experience repetitive thought such as rumination or worry. Effective problem solving is an essential life skill and this Problem Solving worksheet is designed to guide adults through steps which will help them to generate solutions to ‘stuck’ situations in their lives. It follows the qualities of effective problem solving outlined by Nezu, Nezu & D’Zurilla (2013), namely: clearly defining a problem; generation of alternative solutions; deliberative decision making; and the implementation of the chosen solution.

The therapist’s stance during problem solving should be one of collaborative curiosity. It is not for the therapist to pass judgment or to impose their preferred solution. Instead it is the clinician’s role to sit alongside clients and to help them examine the advantages and disadvantages of their options and, if the client is ‘stuck’ in rumination or

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Therapist Guidance

• What is the nature of the problem?
• What are my goals?
• What is getting the way of me reaching my goals?
• “Can you think of any ways that you could make this problem not be a problem any more?”
• “What’s keeping this problem as a problem? What could you do

References And Further Reading

• Beck, A.T., Rush, A.J., Shaw, B.F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression . New York: Guilford. Nezu, A. M., Nezu, C. M., D’Zurilla, T. J. (2013). Problem-solving therapy: a treatment manual . New York: Springer.
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Resilience Counseling: 12 Worksheets to Use in Therapy

While it will lead to prolonged distress for some, others will return from the ordeal stronger in mind and spirit, having met the challenge and returned to purposeful lives (Southwick & Charney, 2018).

While it is neither realistic nor advisable to shield yourself from risk, it is possible to develop resilience and rise to “the challenge of tough times and find unimagined strengths within yourself” (Neenan, 2018, p. 3).

This article explores how counseling can help build such resilience in clients, helping them to see adversity as an opportunity for growth and using existing and new psychological potential to overcome challenges. In addition, resilience to manage daily challenges are also addressed in resilience counseling, which we discuss here.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Resilience Exercises for free . These engaging, science-based exercises will help you to effectively deal with difficult circumstances and give you the tools to improve the resilience of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains:

What is resilience in counseling, 2 examples of fostering resilience, why is resilience important in counseling, how to build resilience in counseling, 4 interventions and techniques for counselors, 3 best activities, worksheets, and exercises, a look at group resilience counseling, resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message.

While the popular view of resilience is that we can and should bounce back from adversity, this may not be a helpful approach in resilience counseling . It suggests that the resilient person effortlessly overcomes tough times to return to ‘normal’ without missing a beat (Neenan, 2018).

And yet, this is rarely the case. When we face genuine adversity, do our lives truly return to how things were before? Constantly looking back to how things used to be before a life-changing accident can lead to us becoming psychologically stuck .

Whether facing traumatic adversity or overcoming something less severe but still significant (such as layoffs at work or a challenging client), coming back requires time for adaptation and recovery (Neenan, 2018).

Counseling resilience typically involves a strong focus on how we interpret events. Through understanding their clients’ thinking, counselors gain insight into their inner world and identify attitudes and beliefs that are helping, harming, or hindering their ability to cope with difficult times and challenging events (Neenan, 2018).

Resilience counseling invites consideration and focus on the following resilience factors (Southwick & Charney, 2018):

• Facing fear Showing courage and resilience does not suggest the absence of fear.
• Imitating resilient role models Mirroring and adopting resilient behavior in those we admire can inspire our resilience.
• Social support Resilience is reliant not solely on the individual, but also on having an entire support network.
• Mental, emotional, and physical training Experiencing challenges and hardship is not always negative. When accompanied and supported by training, it can result in opportunities to learn to be more resilient.
• Increasing cognitive and emotional flexibility Resilient people tend to be flexible in how they think about challenges and their reaction to stress.
• Finding meaning, purpose, and growth There are many examples of individuals who have remained resilient in the face of extreme hardship, relying heavily on the meaning they attach to their lives.
• Fostering optimism Realistic optimism is an important factor in remaining resilient.

While far from exhaustive, the list begins to suggest the wide range of factors involved in building and maintaining resilience and its impact on our lives.

The following two examples are very different accounts of individuals fostering resilience:

• Mary’s story Mary had an incredibly tough childhood. She lost her mother to cancer, had a verbally abusive father, and had a difficult relationship with her step-mother and much older step-brother (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2015).

Placed in the foster care system, Mary experienced an early life full of uncertainty and instability. And yet, she tells of a point that changed everything. When a close school friend “challenged her to take control of her life,” she decided, there and then, to “hold onto only those things that could be in her control” (Luthans et al., 2015, p. 147).

Creating her own interpretation of resilience, she gave everything to her education and sports. Excelling at both, she went on to be awarded a full scholarship at a top university. Despite further bumps along the road, she later became a successful bank executive.

• Jan’s story Jan arrived in therapy intending to change her behavior to make her boss recognize that his treatment of her was unfair and getting in the way of new opportunities (Pemberton, 2015).

Over several counseling sessions , she became aware that “the powerless victim did not serve her well” or reflect who she really was. Once she realized her resilience was not reliant on her working for the organization and that she had managed many other difficult situations in other areas of her life, she stopped talking and acting like a victim (Pemberton, 2015, p. 36).

Jan learned to tolerate uncertainty and gain self-confidence through adopting a more resilient outlook of “positive emergence” (Pemberton, 2015, p. 36).

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As a coach or counselor, it will not be long before you encounter a client whose life has been shaken to the core by events – a death, accident, illness, betrayal, or violence.

Thankfully, it is possible to help those who have experienced trauma, providing support to build the resilience needed to not only survive but ultimately flourish (Southwick & Charney, 2018).

After all, “a survivor and a person demonstrating resilience are not necessarily undergoing the same process of recovery” (Neenan, 2018, p. 8). Someone who survives trauma may be left bitter and consumed with anger, blame, and even guilt, while the resilient person seeks personal growth and a life with meaning.

The term self-righting – a phrase taken from restoring an overturned boat to its upright position in the water – is sometimes used as a metaphor for getting an individual’s life back on track and is especially relevant for the role of the counselor during therapy (Neenan, 2018).

Neenan (2018) describes how the support and advice offered by a trusted mental health professional can considerably reduce the degree and length of the client’s struggle to overcome problems. Resilience is rarely developed in social isolation, and if constructive support is available, it should be taken.

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Updated monthly. 100% Science-based.

“The best positive psychology resource out there!” — Emiliya Zhivotovskaya , Flourishing Center CEO

There is no single proven approach for building resilience.

Resilience involves many factors and is underpinned by various support mechanisms; counseling must therefore be appropriate to the needs of the clients and the issues they present.

With multiple approaches available, we consider three broad therapeutic styles that can be used in isolation or combined as necessary (Neenan, 2018; Southwick & Charney, 2018).

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is particularly useful when working with clients to build resilience and learn to cope with unpredictable and often unwanted events. CBT interventions for building resilience might best be summed up with the statement, “it is not events, but our beliefs about them, that cause suffering” (Southwick & Charney, 2018, p. 52).

Thoughts and beliefs, such as, “Why me?” or “I’m a failure,” can be replaced with more helpful, sustaining beliefs that encourage resilient thinking and behavior.

However, it is essential to note that CBT is not always the right approach to foster resilience. Timing (the moment the client recognizes that their beliefs may be holding them back) and a willingness to “see themselves as an agent in their own life” are crucial (Southwick & Charney, 2018, p. 64).

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT does not seek to deny the difficulties that bring us suffering; they are inescapable (Southwick & Charney, 2018).

Rather than focusing on changing clients’ beliefs to foster resilience, ACT practitioners encourage their clients to learn to accept discomfort and experience what follows.

Facing reality, rather than withdrawing or seeking to blame others, is vital to ACT. Practicing mindfulness (grounding, in particular) can help clients develop a flexible mindset and learn to accept the present rather than repeatedly re-running thoughts that lead to feelings of rejection, disappointment, or failure.

Solution-focused coaching

Solution-focused coaching has an almost instinctual appeal, possibly due to its apparent simplicity (Southwick & Charney, 2018).

Rather than focusing on helping the client understand their problems, counselors encourage them to uncover how they would feel if their problem were solved and what they currently do that makes them think change is possible.

This innovative approach recognizes that the client is the expert in their lives, not the coach. The client is then helped to uncover the resources they already possess to overcome difficulties they face, building and maintaining resilience.

While these three approaches to building resilience in therapy have proven incredibly helpful, there are others. The resilience exercises and interventions that follow are drawn from many counseling and therapeutic styles and can be beneficial to a variety of clients and situations.

Resiliency field trip: a therapy tool to help you cope with stress – Emily Capito

The following is a selection of some of the many interventions and techniques available to counselors to build resilience in clients.

Understand your resilience

Pemberton (2015) lists three crucial areas that combine to form an individual’s resilience:

• Resilience is a capacity partially shaped by innate personality factors.
• Factors in the individual’s environment provide protection against the impact of the challenge.
• Resilience can be learned through encountering difficulty and hardship.

To gain insight into the relative contribution of each theme, ask your client the following counseling interview questions (modified from Pemberton, 2015):

• Would you describe yourself as a naturally optimistic or pessimistic person?
• How would your friends describe how you deal with life’s challenges and setbacks?
• How easy do you find it to overcome difficulties?
• What challenges did you encounter in early life?
• What factors helped you with those challenges?
• Who believed in you?
• What has been your most significant challenge so far?
• How did you get yourself through it?
• What did you learn from that challenge that you continue to use in your life?

The answers provide a clue regarding what shapes your resilience and what might cause you to (temporarily) lose it.

Practicing solution-focused resilience

Resilience regarding existing challenges can be built by revisiting lessons from similar challenges in the past, reminding the client of what they already know but may have forgotten (Southwick & Charney, 2018).

The Solution-Focused Resilience Template is a practical approach for helping clients (re)discover resources they can draw on for building resilience.

What have you forgotten that you could use now to help you manage or overcome the present situation?

Understanding the Impact of Attitudes on resilience

“Attitudes are evaluations we make of an object, person, group, issue, situation or concept,” and they have three components (Neenan, 2018, p. 19):

• Thoughts – What do you think about X?
• Emotions – How do you feel about X?
• Behavior – How do you act toward X?

Our attitudes and beliefs are powerful influencers on how we behave, positively and negatively. We often benefit from replacing unhelpful or harmful perspectives and viewpoints with ones that are more healthy and helpful. But how?

It is not always easy to change our beliefs; it takes effort and willingness. The Understanding the Impact of Attitudes on Resilience worksheet can help clients see things more clearly by asking questions about their existing beliefs and possible new ones.

Resilient Problem-Solving Skills

Whether our ability or capacity to become more resilient is thwarted by internal blocks (such as fear, anxiety, or anger) or external blocks (such as failing to hit sales targets or meeting financial burden), problem-solving can help (Neenan, 2018).

The ADAPT model is a practical tool that can help clients focus on problem-solving. Why not try out the Resilient Problem-Solving Skills worksheet with your client as a way of exploring possible solutions to the problems they face?

Ask the client to consider the following ADAPT prompts (modified from Neenan, 2018; Demiris et al., 2010):

• A = attitude to the situation
• D = define the problem and set realistic goals
• A = generate alternative solutions
• P = predict the likely consequences and develop a solution plan
• T = try out the solution and see if it works

You can use the following counseling activities , exercises, and worksheets to understand your client’s resilience and identify ways it can be developed (modified from Pemberton, 2015):

When Was I (Not) Resilient?

The When Was I (Not) Resilient? worksheet provides a helpful way to review situations when you coped well and coped poorly to identify qualities that are more developed than others and the nature of your resilience.

Uncover Your Purpose

Feeling a stronger sense of purpose can help you build and maintain resilience. It can be easier to persevere and push through difficult times when you understand the impact you would like to have on the world (Armstrong, 2019).

The Uncover Your Purpose worksheet can make your life narrative clearer. Discovering your compelling purpose can clarify your focus on overcoming and remaining resilient during challenging life events.

When considering challenges, review your answers to see what consistent themes develop and consider how they foster your resilience.

Creating Realistic Optimism for resilience

Positive emotions (e.g., joy, gratitude, and hope) and negative emotions (e.g., resentment, anger, and fear) influence resilience. Positive emotions can broaden our focus, attention, and behavior, helping us become more creative as we tackle our problems (Southwick & Charney, 2018).

The Creating Realistic Optimism for Resilience worksheet can help you positively appraise a situation that may at first appear negative.

Engaging in more optimistic thinking can help you become more resilient by actively employing more coping strategies to overcome challenging times (Southwick & Charney, 2018).

One-to-one resilience counseling can be highly successful at helping clients adapt to life-changing and stressful situations and even encourage personal growth.

There are also benefits from attending group sessions that offer a support network and the chance to meet others facing similar challenges (Counselling Directory, n.d.).

Group sessions provide the opportunity to learn from and be inspired by others’ narratives and difficulties. Attending counseling with others may help the client develop the optimism and regain the hope essential for building resilience (American Psychological Association, 2012).

17 Tools To Build Resilience and Coping Skills

Empower others with the skills to manage and learn from inevitable life challenges using these 17 Resilience & Coping Exercises [PDF] , so you can increase their ability to thrive.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

We have many resources, including activities, worksheets, and exercises, that help build resilience and cope with life’s uncertainties.

Why not download our free resilience tool pack and try out the powerful tools contained within?

• Doors Closed Doors Open A simple but powerful tool to help you reflect on what doors opened as others closed.
• Using Values to Build Resilience Here, we use value affirmations to build resilience during stressful life events.

Other free resources include:

• It Could Be Worse This thought experiment encourages clients to face the world with increased feelings of gratitude and become more resilient.
• Exploring Past Resilience It can be valuable to consider resilience resources and strategies that have helped people overcome adversity in the past so that they may use them again in the future.

More extensive versions of the following tools are available with a subscription to the Positive Psychology Toolkit© , but they are described briefly below:

• Step one – Describe a challenging situation.
• Step two – Observe your thoughts about the situation.
• Step three – Reflect on different styles of coping : active, surrender, passive, and over-control.
• Step four – Identify the coping style you are using from your thoughts.
• Step five – Assess the helpfulness of your coping style.
• Step six – Move toward a more helpful coping style.
• Step two – Imagine yourself bouncing back from this situation.
• Step three – Describe what your most resilient self might look like.
• Step four – Now imagine how you would interview yourself.
• Reflect – What were the key takeaways from interviewing yourself?

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others overcome adversity, check out this collection of 17 validated resilience tools for practitioners . Use them to help others recover from personal challenges and turn setbacks into opportunities for growth.

Trauma in our lives is inevitable. While it may not always seem the case, we do have a choice regarding our response.

Counseling can support clients by uncovering their attitudes and beliefs regarding challenging events and encouraging them to adopt more helpful ones. As clients become better at returning from adversity, they will build resilience and be more ready for future life events.

We must remember resilience is not the absence of fear nor the ability to immediately bounce back from difficult times. Instead, it involves flexibility in how we think about challenges and react to stress.

Positive emotions can greatly reduce the length and depth of the struggle to return to a meaningful life or find a new purpose. And resilience should not be considered a solo activity, but rather part of a network of support and encouragement.

Why not support your client with some of the resilience techniques and activities in this article, encouraging them to adopt new attitudes?

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Resilience Exercises for free .

• American Psychological Association. (2012, January 1). Building your resilience. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience
• Armstrong, A. (2019). Resilience club: Daily success habits of long-term high performers . Rethink Press.
• Counselling Directory. (n.d.). Group therapy. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/group-therapy.html
• Demiris, G., Parker Oliver, D., Washington, K., Fruehling, L. T., Haggarty-Robbins, D., Doorenbos, A., … Berry, D. (2010). A problem solving intervention for hospice caregivers: A pilot study. Journal of Palliative Medicine , 13 (8), 1005–1011.
• Luthans, F., Youssef, C. M., & Avolio, B. J. (2015). Psychological capital and beyond . Oxford University Press.
• Neenan, M. (2018). Developing resilience: A cognitive-behavioural approach . Routledge.
• Pemberton, C. (2015). Resilience: A practical guide for coaches . Open University Press.
• Southwick, S. M., & Charney, D. S. (2018). Resilience: The science of mastering life’s greatest challenges . Cambridge University Press.

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Life can be challenging. But it all down to individual on how they can creat that circle and make it a living. Yes it can be ups and downs but one thing is sure is how you see the whole picture.

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3 Resilience Exercises Pack

Today's Therapist

What Is Problem Solving Therapy and Who Can It Help

February 1, 2017 By TodaysTherapist

Stressful events are part of everyday life. For some, coping with the negative effects of these events can be difficult, whether stressors are considered large (such as the death of a loved one) or small (like making a mistake at work). Stressors can create or exacerbate psychological and physical health problems. Problem solving therapy can help individuals develop effective coping methods for dealing with stressors in their lives by providing structured goals and coaching adaptation skills for decision-making situations. While this article provides some facts on problem solving therapy, it is strongly advised that individuals considering problem solving therapy receive care from licensed professionals.

What Is Problem Solving Therapy?

Problem Solving Therapy (PST), or structured problem solving, is psychological treatment used to help clients manage stressful life events. Therapists employ behavioral and cognitive intervention techniques to assist clients in establishing and actualizing goals and creating effective problem-solving, stress management techniques. Clients are encouraged and guided in how to be more proactive in their daily lives and make decisions that help them achieve goals. Core components of PST are addressing problem orientation, explicitly defining problems the client faces, coming up with and evaluating solutions, and breaking problems down into achievable, reasonable, and ultimately less stressful steps.

Solving Problems Outcomes

PST involves finding ways for individuals to change the stressful nature of situations and how they respond to stressors. Generally, problem-solving outcomes are based upon problem-solving style and problem orientation . Problem orientation is the feelings and thoughts a person has about their problems and perceived ability to resolve them. A positive problem orientation generally leads the person to enhance problem-solving efforts while a negative problem orientation tends to lead to the person being inhibited in solving their problems. Problem-solving style is behavioral and cognitive activities targeted at coping with stressors. Those with ineffective styles tend to report having more stressors and negative life events.

Problem solving therapy is essentially a series of training sessions in learning how to utilize adaptive problem solving skills that help clients better deal with and/or resolve problems that arise in their daily lives. Clients learn how to make more effective decisions for themselves, come up with their own creative ways to solve problems, and identify barriers or obstacles that surface when trying to reach their goals and how best to negate these hurdles. The overall intended outcome is that a client will feel more confident in their decision-making and problem-solving techniques and will be able to carry on their solutions as independently as possible.

Medical Conditions and Problem Solving Therapy

PST can be used by General Practitioners (GPs) to help treat difficult medical conditions, such as chronic pain management. As with a therapist, GPs have clients identify problems they want solved, set up goals, have clients come up with solutions for how they would like to solve the problem, weigh pros and cons of each solution in order to select the best one, and implement the solution. Together, a GP and client can review how well the selected solution is working and make any necessary changes. Again, this article is to provide helpful information in learning about PST; it is, therefore, highly recommended that one seeks help from a licensed, well-reputed professional who can help implement and analyze PST goals.

Developing and Achieving Problem Solving Therapy Goals

Therapists and GPs tend to use PST with clients who seem to be having difficulties coping with stressful life situations that can become confusing and overwhelming. The goals of PST revolve around meeting four key therapy objectives:

• Improving the client’s positive orientation;
• Reducing the client’s negative orientation;
• Enhancing the client’s ability to identify what is causing a problem, coming up with a few potential solutions, conducting cost-benefit analysis to determine the best solution, implementing the solution, then analyzing the outcome;
• Reducing impulsive and ultimately ineffective methods for attempting to solve problems.

Since every client is a different person and has diverse needs, therapists and doctors try to allow as much creative and analytic processing by the client as possible, although PST relies on the four basic components mentioned in the list above.

Therapists and clients alike should be aware of several obstacles that can occur during the PST process, including the client experiencing cognitive overload, difficulties with emotional regulation, usage of ineffective or maladaptive problem solving styles, feelings of hopelessness leading to decreased motivation to follow through on goals, and difficulties removing oneself from negative moods or thought patterns.

Who Can Benefit from Problem Solving Therapy?

Problem solving therapy can be beneficial for many different people. Since there is flexibility in regard to treatment goals and methods for achieving them, PST can be used in a group setting or one-on-one with an individual client. Since negative stressors are scientifically linked to mental and physical health problems, problem solving therapy can be beneficial to almost anyone, so long as they are open to the idea of pursuing treatment and engaging in the process.

PST has been found to be an effective therapeutic method for clients who are dealing with a vast array of mental, physical and emotional conditions. These conditions include some personality disorders, major depressive disorder, suicidal ideation, generalized anxiety disorder, relationship issues, emotional duress, and medically-based issues that result in emotional and physical pain (such as fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism, diabetes, and cancer).

Problem solving therapy is a widely-acknowledged tool used by therapists and general medical practitioners alike to help clients find proactive and reasonable ways to deal with the stressful events that occur in their lives. Overall, PST can help people find meaningful, creative, and adjustable ways of reaching their problem-resolution goals and ultimately lead to a better quality of living for those dealing with major physical and mental health concerns. Anyone considering PST should contact a trained medical or counseling professional to inquire about how this type of therapy could potentially suit their needs.

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Problem Solving: Understanding and Dealing with Challenges

The "three-legged-table" schema can help you spot problems..

Updated July 25, 2023 | Reviewed by Ray Parker

• What Is Therapy?
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• Problems can manifest in three ways: physical symptoms, negative thoughts, and maladaptive behaviours.
• Awareness of how your problems manifest and play out is essential for effective problem-solving.
• By identifying symptoms through the "three-legged table," you can effectively address your problems.

When life is going well, we think positively and we make healthy choices in our day-to-day lives. But when we are overwhelmed, struggling with negative, self-limiting thoughts or maladaptive habits or behaviors, life can seem unmanageable and out of control.

In my work as a clinical psychologist, I use this three-legged table to help my patients find clarity, support, and healing. There are times in our lives when it is critical that we pause, reflect, and try to understand what is going on in our bodies and minds. My three-legged table provides a means of doing just that. It has helped thousands of people understand their problems, and it can help you too. Here’s how it works.

Gaining an awareness of how problems manifest

Every problem we have in life manifests in three possible ways—physical symptoms, negative thoughts (cognitions), and maladaptive, negative behaviors. We can examine how our problems show up and play out in our lives by identifying our physical symptoms, and maladaptive thoughts and behaviors. With these insights and awareness, we can seek the support we need to address what’s happening and start to make positive changes.

A closer look at symptoms

Let’s start with physical symptoms—the first leg of our three-legged table. A number of physical symptoms are triggered by our emotions. Anxiety , for example, is often accompanied by a number of distressing physical symptoms , including headaches, gastrointestinal problems, muscle tension, fatigue, and a racing heart, to name a few. Insomnia , another troubling physical symptom, is also often tied to emotions.

Moving along to the second leg of our table, our problems also manifest as negative, unhealthy thoughts or cognitions. We internalize past hurts and ingrained negative beliefs about how the world works, and our sense of worth in the world.

In low self-esteem , we often develop negative thoughts, which lead to self-depreciation, feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, and negative thoughts about our abilities, relationships, the world, and opportunities.

Onward to leg number three—maladaptive choices, patterns, and behaviors. Often, we distract or self-soothe with any number of unhealthy, maladaptive behaviors and habits —from eating too much, eating too little, sleeping too much or too little, relying on alcohol and drugs to numb physical symptoms or escape negative thoughts to angry outbursts, self-sabotage , procrastination , self-harm , inflicting or tolerating abuse, mismanaging money, gambling or shopping addictions, staying in a job we dislike, and many more unhealthy behaviors.

Putting the table to use

Whatever is troubling you, put your problem on the top of this three-legged table It can be used for work struggles, low self-esteem, becoming a caregiver to children or elderly parents, relationship troubles, inter-personal conflicts, anger , medical conditions, addictions (like food, alcohol, shopping, and gambling), chronic pain , money concerns, depression , anxiety: anything.

Mired in day-to-day physical symptoms, negative thoughts, and unhealthy patterns, we can feel overwhelmed and helpless. When we are stuck, awareness is the first step to creating positive change.

We can use the three-legged table to gain insight and awareness of the connections between our problems and symptoms, negative thoughts, and maladaptive behaviors. By identifying our symptoms in all three categories (legs), we can begin to address them effectively.

Seeking expert interventions

Most of us are comfortable seeking medical interventions for our physical symptoms, but less aware of what to do about our negative thoughts and maladaptive behaviors. Here, seeking therapy , and working with a mental health professional can be of great assistance in both healing and growth.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), for example, is a solutions-based form of therapy that addresses maladaptive thoughts by challenging and reframing the cognitive distortions and thoughts we hold onto. It also facilitates positive changes by slowly shifting maladaptive behaviors, choices, and habits to healthier, more adaptive ones.

With a deeper understanding and awareness of how problems manifest and play out, we are better able to navigate life’s challenges. We owe it to ourselves to pay attention to our physical and mental health and to create positive change where change is needed.

The first step to positive change—and to addressing our physical symptoms and troublesome thoughts and behaviors—is awareness. With this awareness, we can begin to create positive changes that tackle our problems head-on.

Put your problems on the table

You can work on building awareness when you are struggling or feeling overwhelmed by:

• Listing your troubling physical/physiological symptoms, negative thoughts, and maladaptive behaviors, choices, and patterns
• Thinking about the areas of your life where you would like to create positive change
• Making a commitment to yourself to reach out and find the supports you need to address your physical symptoms, negative thoughts, and behaviors
• Bringing in the resources you need to address problematic thoughts and behaviors and address your physical symptoms

To find a therapist, please visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.

Monica Vermani, C. Psych., is a clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of trauma, stress, mood and anxiety disorders, and the author of A Deeper Wellness .

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• December 19, 2023

20 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Techniques with Examples

Muhammad Sohail

Table of contents.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) stands as a powerful, evidence-based therapeutic approach for various mental health challenges. At its core lies a repertoire of techniques designed to reframe thoughts, alter behaviors, and alleviate emotional distress. This article explores 20 most commonly used cbt techniques. These therapy techniques are scientifcally valid, diverse in their application and effectiveness, serve as pivotal tools in helping individuals navigate and conquer their mental health obstacles.

Cognitive Restructuring or Reframing:

This is the most talked about of all cbt techniques. CBT employs cognitive restructuring to challenge and alter negative thought patterns. By examining beliefs and questioning their validity, individuals learn to perceive situations from different angles, fostering more adaptive thinking patterns.

John, feeling worthless after a rejected job application, questions his belief that he’s incompetent. He reflects on past achievements and reframes the situation, realizing the rejection doesn’t define his abilities.

Guided Discovery:

In guided discovery, therapists engage individuals in an exploration of their viewpoints. Through strategic questioning, individuals are prompted to examine evidence supporting their beliefs and consider alternate perspectives, fostering a more nuanced understanding and empowering them to choose healthier cognitive pathways.

During therapy, Sarah explores her fear of failure. Her therapist asks, “What evidence supports your belief that you’ll fail? Can we consider alternate outcomes?” Guided by these questions, Sarah acknowledges her exaggerated fears and explores more balanced perspectives.

Journaling and Thought Records:

Writing exercises like journaling and thought records aid in identifying and challenging negative thoughts. Tracking thoughts between sessions and noting positive alternatives enables individuals to monitor progress and recognize cognitive shifts.

James maintains a thought journal. Between sessions, he records negative thoughts about social situations. He then challenges these thoughts, jotting down positive alternatives and notices a shift in his mindset.

Activity Scheduling and Behavior Activation:

By scheduling avoided activities and implementing learned strategies, individuals establish healthier habits and confront avoidance tendencies, fostering behavioral change.

Emily, struggling with social anxiety, schedules coffee outings with friends. By implementing gradual exposure, she confronts her fear and eventually feels more comfortable in social settings.

Relaxation and Stress Reduction Techniques:

CBT incorporates relaxation techniques like deep breathing, muscle relaxation, and imagery to mitigate stress. These methods equip individuals with practical skills to manage phobias, social anxieties, and stressors effectively.

David practices deep breathing exercises when faced with work stress. By incorporating this technique into his routine, he manages work-related anxiety more effectively.

Successive Approximation:

Breaking overwhelming tasks into manageable steps cultivates confidence through incremental progress, enabling individuals to tackle challenges more effectively.

Maria, overwhelmed by academic tasks, breaks down her study sessions into smaller, manageable sections. As she masters each segment, her confidence grows, making the workload seem more manageable.

Interoceptive Exposure:

This technique targets panic and anxiety by exposing individuals to feared bodily sensations, allowing for a recalibration of beliefs around these sensations and reducing avoidance behaviors.

Tom, experiencing panic attacks, deliberately induces shortness of breath in a controlled setting. As he tolerates this discomfort without avoidance, he realizes that the sensation, though distressing, is not harmful.

Play the Script Until the End:

Encouraging individuals to envision worst-case scenarios helps alleviate fear by demonstrating the manageability of potential outcomes, reducing anxiety.

Facing fear of public speaking, Rachel imagines herself stumbling during a presentation. By playing out this scenario mentally, she realizes that even if it happens, it wouldn’t be catastrophic.

Shaping (Successive Approximation):

Shaping involves mastering simpler tasks akin to the challenging ones, aiding individuals in overcoming difficulties through gradual skill development.

Chris, struggling with public speaking, begins by speaking to small groups before gradually addressing larger audiences. Each step builds his confidence for the next challenge.

Contingency Management:

This method utilizes reinforcement and punishment to promote desirable behaviors, leveraging the consequences of actions to shape behavior positively.

To encourage healthier eating habits, Sarah rewards herself with a favorite activity after a week of sticking to a balanced diet.

Acting Out (Role-Playing):

Role-playing scenarios allow individuals to practice new behaviors in a safe environment, facilitating skill development and desensitization to challenging situations.

Alex, preparing for a job interview, engages in role-playing with a friend. They simulate the interview scenario, allowing Alex to practice responses and manage anxiety.

Sleep Hygiene Training:

Addressing the link between depression and sleep problems, this technique provides strategies for improving sleep quality, a critical aspect of mental well-being.

Lisa, struggling with sleep, follows sleep hygiene recommendations. She creates a calming bedtime routine and eliminates screen time before sleep, noticing improvements in her sleep quality.

Mastery and Pleasure Technique:

Encouraging engagement in enjoyable or accomplishment-driven activities serves as a mood enhancer and distraction from depressive thoughts.

After feeling low, Mark engages in gardening (a mastery activity) and then spends time painting (a pleasure activity). He finds joy in these activities, which uplifts his mood.

Behavioral Experiments:

This technique involves creating real-life experiments to test the validity of certain beliefs or assumptions. By actively exploring alternative thoughts or behaviors, individuals gather concrete evidence to challenge and modify their existing perspectives.

Laura believes people judge her negatively. She experiments by initiating conversations at social gatherings and observes that most interactions are positive, challenging her belief.

Externalizing:

Externalizing helps individuals separate themselves from their problems by giving those issues an identity or persona. This technique encourages individuals to view their problems as separate entities, facilitating a more objective approach to problem-solving.

Adam, dealing with anger issues, visualizes his anger as a separate entity named “Fury.” This helps him view his emotions objectively and manage them more effectively.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT):

ACT combines mindfulness strategies with commitment and behavior-change techniques. It focuses on accepting difficult thoughts and emotions while committing to actions aligned with personal values, promoting psychological flexibility.

Sarah practices mindfulness exercises to accept her anxiety while committing to attend social events aligned with her values of connection and growth.

Imagery-Based Exposure:

This technique involves mentally visualizing feared or distressing situations, allowing individuals to confront and manage their anxieties in a controlled, imaginative setting.

Jack, afraid of flying, visualizes being on a plane, progressively picturing the experience in detail until he feels more comfortable with the idea of flying.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR):

MBSR incorporates mindfulness meditation and awareness techniques to help individuals manage stress, improve focus, and enhance overall well-being by staying present in the moment.

Rachel practices mindfulness meditation daily. By focusing on the present moment, she reduces work-related stress and enhances her overall well-being.

Systematic Desensitization:

Similar to exposure therapy, systematic desensitization involves pairing relaxation techniques with gradual exposure to anxiety-inducing stimuli. This process helps individuals associate relaxation with the feared stimuli, reducing anxiety responses over time.

Michael, with a fear of heights, gradually exposes himself to elevators first, then low floors in tall buildings, gradually working up to higher levels, reducing his fear response.

Narrative Therapy:

Narrative therapy focuses on separating individuals from their problems by helping them reconstruct and retell their life stories in a more empowering and positive light, emphasizing strengths and resilience.

Emily reevaluates her life story by focusing on instances where she overcame challenges, emphasizing her resilience and strength rather than her setbacks.

Each of these CBT techniques plays a unique role in helping individuals transform their thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. While some focus on cognitive restructuring, others emphasize behavioral modification or stress reduction. Together, they form a comprehensive toolkit empowering individuals to navigate their mental health challenges and foster positive change in their lives.

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How to Use Problem-Solving Therapy with Your Clients

8 questions you can ask to help clients solve problems faster.

“Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.”

– Anton Chekhov

“Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.”

– Gever Tulley

A common fantasy is of a golden and entirely problem-free future. Sound familiar? The assumption of such a fantasy is, of course, that a life free of problems is (a) possible and (b) by definition, one of happiness.

But could you really live without problems?

We are problem-solving creatures. 1 I suspect we can only be truly happy if we have problems, because rising to challenge gives life meaning. 2 But, paradoxically, we often feel un happy until we have solved our problems. Ah, the paradox of being human! But if we dig into this, the paradox dissolves.

This is because some problems are more problematic, depressing, and overwhelming than others. Some problems are intriguing and fun, while some are depressing and limiting, or at least seem like that. Problems are the fertilizer that helps us grow and develop. But, of course, it’s the kind of problems we have, and how we respond to them, that determines how meaningful life is for us.

Research has found that the kind of happiness associated with taking and getting is less physically beneficial for people than the kind we experience when we seek to help other people and make the world better in some way. The kind of happiness, or perhaps I should say enjoyment, associated with drug taking and drinking, for example, had similar effects on the body to the stress response from terrible adversity. 3

Which leads us to a cliché, but one worth considering.

The more you give, the more you get

When we help others, even when we help ‘us’ rather than simply ‘I’, we are seeking to solve problems that are connected to a sense of a wider, more meaningful life. This kind of satisfaction tends to be more nourishing. Simply looking for repeated thrills or highs can, pretty quickly, start to feel as meaningful as continually trying to fill a bucket with no bottom to it. A ‘bucket list’ is all very well… if the bucket being filled leads to fulfillment .

So, we can, I think, learn a lot about a person from their stated problems. Compare “My life isn’t providing me with meaning!” with “How can I make a difference?”

It’s a terrible cliché to say: “The more you give the more you get” but I would add to this truism “… especially when you forget about getting.”

But if finding solutions to problems and rising to the challenge of making things better can give us that all-important sense of meaning, what is the problem with problems?

Problematic problems

Problems become problematic when our clients lose hope that they can solve them, and especially when they can’t stop thinking about them.

Learned helplessness causes our clients to wrongly feel they’re less empowered than they actually are. They may have come to feel that life simply happens to them, and it had better treat them kindly because they don’t have any influence over life.

The other problem with problems is when people can think of nothing else. If we mull over our problems in the absence of hope, then we become dangerously vulnerable to depression. 4,5 If we feel we can’t solve problems, then we may substitute imagination and circular thinking for action.

If a person doesn’t have volition over where they place their attention, they will find that their focus becomes locked on what makes them feel bad. They will feel unable to withdraw their attention from that particular focus. We see this locking of attention, and difficulty withdrawing it, in addiction, obsession, and, of course, depression.

Sometimes, this kind of locked attention on problems can prove to be worse than the problems themselves.

The problem behind the problem

Because professionals like to slice reality thinly, problem-solving therapy has come to be seen as a type of therapy.

But all therapy is problem-solving therapy. Either we seek to help our clients ‘solve the problem’ by feeling and thinking differently about it, or we help them find ways to solve an actual practical problem (or both!).

Seek to establish how many of your clients’ problems are themselves maladaptive attempts to solve problems.

A client may have come to you for help because they are a control freak . But what problems is their control freakery maladaptively trying to solve? Anxiety ? Fear ? Jealousy ?

The first part of a therapy session, along with building rapport , is information gathering . So what questions can we ask our clients about their problems as a first step to helping them solve them?

Problem-solving therapy questions

Clients come to us when they have some kind of problem. Sometimes they have multiple problems. First off, we need to ask them if they feel the problem is soluble in practical terms or if they need to find ways to feel and think differently about the situation.

In addition, we can ask:

• Have they been using problem-solving strategies, consciously or otherwise, that cause them further problems? Examples might be trying to inflexibly exert control in ways that cause problems or excessive drinking as a way to self-medicate for anxiety.
• Have they been worrying about problems that could arise in the future? If so, it’s clear they’ve been misusing their imagination. We can help them imagine differently or even suspend imagination and therefore better tolerate uncertainty .
• To what extent does their life feel meaningful to them? We can ascertain through listening to our clients to what extent they have been meeting their primal emotional needs in balance.
• What was happening in their lives generally when the problem first developed?
• How do they generally go about solving problems? What is their problem-solving style? Displacement (alcohol or drugs)? Ignoring (head in the sand)? Anger ? Passivity ? Could they learn to think and solve problems differently?
• What ways they have already tried to deal with their problem? What has worked? What hasn’t worked? If I find my client has tried something before with success, I may want to do more of that with them. Reinventing the wheel is a waste of time.
• Do they normally solve problems well but have come to a situation that cannot simply be solved through common and generally effective problem-solving strategies? If so, they may simply need support and emotional help to lower anxiety around problematic situations. Sometimes the way to ‘solve a problem’ that can’t immediately be solved in a practical way is to deal with it better and respond differently on an emotional level .
• What resources do they have in terms of their environment, relationships, and personal resources? We can help them build up a sense of these resources and utilize them more fully.

Clients often have problems dealing with the uncertainties of life. We can remind them that the opposite of certainty needn’t necessarily be uncertainty, but rather can be an openness to discovery.

But we can also form problem-solving strategies with our clients.

Clients often come to us because they don’t know which way to go in life . They may not even know what they want. Maybe they have simply been living life in terms of what they don’t want.

We can help them clarify the problem, but also start to look beyond it.

You could be in a beautiful landscape with wonderful paths to follow, but if you walk around continually holding a large rock right in front of your eyes, that is all you will see. Talk of which path would be good for you to follow might feel meaningless, because all you see is the close-up rock.

We can help our clients put down their ‘rocks’ to see what path they might like to travel beyond the problem.

So how can we do this? Well, we can:

• calm them so that multiple perspectives are more easily perceived,
• use solution-focused language and questions ,
• get a sense of what they do want , not just what they don’t want,
• develop with them the steps to take along their desired path, and
• have them hypnotically rehearse their desired outcome.

A good practitioner will also be able to help their clients devise practical solutions sometimes. If we get a sense of the steps a client might need to take in order to solve some real-world problem, then we may be able to offer ideas or help them form a plan to get the help they need from other professionals. For example, I have put clients in touch with physiotherapists and even legal experts.

Clients may be our problems, but I prefer to think of them as challenges. Actually, better than that – we can see them as our guides to what is truly possible for people.

Watch problem-solving strategies inside Uncommon Practitioners TV

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About Mark Tyrrell

Psychology is my passion. I've been a psychotherapist trainer since 1998, specializing in brief, solution focused approaches. I now teach practitioners all over the world via our online courses .

You can get my book FREE when you subscribe to my therapy techniques newsletter. Click here to subscribe free now.

You can also get my articles on YouTube , find me on Instagram , Amazon , Twitter , and Facebook .

(1) http://www.i-c-r.org.uk/publications/monographarchive/Monograph33.pdf

(2) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614531799

(3)  https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/07/25/1305419110.short

(4) https://www.apa.org/monitor/nov05/cycle

(5) https://ijmhs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1752-4458-8-53

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Clinical Psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University

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Simon Sherry receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He also owns CRUX Psychology, a private practice in psychology.

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People go to therapy for many reasons. A challenging life event, trauma, volatile emotions, relationship problems, poor mental health: all can prompt someone to seek it out.

Whatever the reason, it can be difficult to decide when and if therapy is right for you.

If you’re reading this, now’s probably the right time. If you’re considering therapy, something is likely bothering you and you want help. Consider this your sign to reach out.

If you’re still unsure, keep reading.

Why therapy?

Sometimes, our minds work against us. Therapy can help you understand why you think, feel, or act how you do and give you the skills you need to think, feel, or act in healthier ways.

This includes helping you:

identify, understand, and overcome internal obstacles

identify and challenge thought patterns and beliefs that are holding you back

improve your mental health

cope with mental illness

and create lasting changes to your thoughts and behaviour that can improve all areas of your life.

No one’s 20s and 30s look the same. You might be saving for a mortgage or just struggling to pay rent. You could be swiping dating apps, or trying to understand childcare. No matter your current challenges, our Quarter Life series has articles to share in the group chat, or just to remind you that you’re not alone.

Read more from Quarter Life:

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When your mental health is suffering

Everyone experiences negative emotions in difficult situations — like sadness after a breakup or anxiety before a big life event. But when do these feelings become problematic? When you have poor mental health .

Mental health and mental illness are distinct , but related, concepts. Mental health refers to the inner resources you have to handle life’s ups and downs. You have good mental health if you enjoy life; feel connected to others; cope well with stress; and have a sense of purpose, a sense of self and strong relationships.

If you have poor mental health, it can be hard to adapt to changes like a breakup, move, loss or parenthood. Therapy can help you improve your mental health, develop resilience and maintain a state of well-being.

Mental illness refers to distressing disturbances in thoughts, feelings and perceptions that interfere with daily life. There are different kinds of mental illness, each characterized by different thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

Mental illness may feel like:

Hopelessness — feeling stuck, unmotivated or helpless.

Apathy — feeling uninterested in things that used to give you satisfaction or pleasure.

Anger — feeling rage or resentment, especially frequently or disproportionately.

Stress — feeling overwhelmed, unable to cope, unwilling to rest or like everything is hard (even if you know it shouldn’t be).

Guilt — feeling ashamed, undeserving of good things or deserving of bad things.

Anxiety — worrying about what has or might happen or having disturbing intrusive thoughts.

Exhaustion — sleeping more than usual, having difficulty getting out of bed or lacking energy during the day.

Insomnia — having difficulty falling or staying asleep.

Both poor mental health and mental illness are equally good reasons to seek therapy.

Ask yourself: Am I having trouble dealing with life challenges?

If the answer is yes, therapy might be for you.

People often cope with the feelings listed above in different ways. Some gain or lose a lot of weight . Others might seek out or do things that are unhealthy for them, like entering a toxic relationship, engaging in dangerous activities, developing an unhealthy habit or procrastinating. Others might isolate themselves from friends and family, or catastrophize and ruminate on negative experiences .

However it manifests, mental illness often gets worse if left untreated . It can have very real impacts on your life, potentially leading to unemployment, broken relationships, poor physical health, substance abuse, homelessness, incarceration or even suicide.

Ask yourself: Is mental illness negatively affecting my functioning or well-being?

What if therapy didn’t work before?

Many people put off going to therapy because they don’t think their problems are serious enough, but you don’t need a big, deep reason to start therapy.

Some people go to therapy to learn more about themselves. Some, to improve their skills, relationships or productivity. Others go for help reaching their goals or because they aren’t happy and don’t know why. Any of these are good reasons to start therapy, even if they don’t seem like “problems” in a traditional sense. You can go to therapy just because there’s something about yourself or your life you’d like to explore.

Therapy is a process. Whether psychotherapy works for you depends on many factors, such as time, effort and your psychologist.

There’s no quick fix for mental health. Symptoms can take weeks, months or even years to improve. Although this can be frustrating or disheartening, for therapy to work, you have to give it time.

Sometimes people go to therapy, but are skeptical or resistant. Therapy won’t work if you aren’t invested in it. For therapy to work, you have to put in the work.

Therapy is a vulnerable process, so finding a psychologist you trust and relate well with is crucial. Psychologists also have different specialities and approaches. For therapy to work, you have to find the right therapist for you.

What if I’m not ready?

There are several reasons why now might not be the right time for you to start therapy. Maybe therapy isn’t in the budget. Maybe you have other priorities. Maybe you’re scared to relive trauma. That’s okay. Therapy can be expensive and difficult, but also rewarding. Just because now isn’t a good time, doesn’t mean there will never be a good time.

If you don’t want to start therapy, don’t. However, it can be helpful to determine why you don’t want to.

Maybe you don’t want to go to therapy because you’re worried what others might think. If so, remember that people are often more understanding than we anticipate, and there is nothing wrong with investing in your health or happiness.

If you’re struggling with your mental health, know that you’re not alone. Mental health issues are common. Having them or attending therapy does not mean there is something “wrong” with you.

Mental illness affects 970 million people and is the leading cause of disability worldwide. One in five adults and more than one in 10 children and youths have mental illness. About 15 per cent of Canadians use mental health services each year.

Don’t let stigma keep you from bettering your life and well-being. Everyone deserves to live a healthy, fulfilling life. Therapy can help you get there.

• Mental health
• Mental illness
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