Hope and Expectancy in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

The common factors approach has been heavily discussed in recent years in psychotherapy, being explored in a variety of different ways. It is commonly accepted that hope and expectancy factors account for roughly 15% of outcome variance in psychotherapy (Lambert, 1992). This article explores how the therapeutic factor of hope and expectancy plays a role in one specific approach, solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT). SFBT is parsimoniously designed to utilize this therapeutic factor to help clients develop solutions that increase their expectancy of change and their hope for a positive outcome. This article explores how the components of SFBT build upon the common factor of hope and expectancy.