Solution-Focused Questions

Desired outcome questions

What are your best hopes from...?
What difference would you like this session to make for you?
What would the person who suggested you come here hope be different for you as a result of us meeting?
What would your closest friend hope be different for you as a result of us meeting?
What differences would you hope happen in your life as a result of us talking?
What do you wish would be different as a result of you being here?
What do you think?
If you did know?
If I asked the person in your life who knows you best, what do you think they’d say?
What do you imagine?
If I had asked you this question when you did know, what would you have said?
What would you have said if I asked you this question on the day you first called me to schedule this appointment?
If I had asked you that question when you were at your most hopeful and motivated, what would you have said?
What would you like instead?

What do you do for fun?
What do you do for a living?
How did you become good at that?
What did it take to be good at that?
What has it taken to stay good at that?
What would the closest person to you say is their favorite thing about you?
How do you show the people in your life that you care about them?
What are you most proud of about yourself?
What would the people who raised you say they are most proud of about the adult you have become?
What has improved since you scheduled this appointment?
How did you do that?
What did you draw upon to help that thing improve?
When did you first notice that things were improving?
Were you surprised to see these things improving?
Who in your life was not surprised to see this improving?
What do you know about yourself that lets you know you can achieve what you want?
What do you know about the problem that lets you know it can be solved? And that you can solve it?

How did you meet?
Once you met, how did you first notice the potential for a long-term relationship?
How did you know that your partener was also interested?
What did you first do to let your partner know you were interested?
What did you notice your partner doing that let you know they enjoyed the early days of this relationship?
How did you let them know you were pleased about their enjoyment?
When did you each first notice that this relationship had a future?
What is your favorite thing about your partner?
What are you most proud of about the relationship you have created?
What are you most pleased that your children get to see about your relationship?
What did each of you do to grow the relationship from when you first met to the happiest times?
How did you maintain those happy times before the problem started?
Once the problem started, what did each of you do to help solve it?
What made you try to solve the problem instead of giving up on the relationship?
What makes you think trying, and not giving up, is a good thing?

What would you like to experience instead of the problem?
How have you dealt with the problem while it has been present?
When has the problem diminished or become less intense?
What role did you play in it diminishing or going away?
What was different about you while the problem was gone or less intense?
Who else noticed that the problem was going away or becoming less intense?
When did you first notice the problem was going away or diminishing?
How did they notice the problem had gone away or become less intense?
What difference did the problem going away or becoming less intense make in that person’s life?
What difference did that person noticing the problem going away make for you?

Suppose you went to sleep one night and a miracle happened that solved all of the problems that led you into my office. What is the first thing you would notice?
If you woke up tomorrow and your best hopes had become a reality, what would you first notice?
If the changes that you noticed, even before the session, continued, what would you notice?
If the problem kept diminishing and even went away, and your best hopes replaced it, what would you notice?
If those differences you, and those close to you, noticed once the problem went away were to continue, what would you notice?
What time would it be?
What else?
What would you do next?
What would you notice next?
Would you consider this a good thing?
What difference would that make?
Would that please you?
How would you show that you were pleased to those close to you?
How would those close to you notice you were pleased?
How would those close to you let you know their life had improved as well?
If your lost loved one were looking down, what would they notice that would make them pleased?

On a scale of zero to 10, with 10 representing your desired outcome bas been realized and zero is the opposite, where are you today?
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 represents your desired outcome being completely realized and 1 is the problem at its worst, where are you today?
What puts you at that number?
How do you know you’re not at zero?
What have you done to prevent the situation from going down on the scale?
If you moved one point on the scale towards the realization of your desired outcome, what is the first thing you would notice?
If you moved up on the scale slightly, what would you notice?
What have you done to get yourself to the number you are currently at?
What else have you done to get yourself to that number?
Who has noticed you progressing up that scale?
What difference has it made to those close to you to see you progress?
What difference would it make to those close to you for you to continue this progress?
What other differences would it make to them for you to continue up the scale?
What would you notice as clues that you were progressing?
How would you show you were progressing?
How would you demonstrate that you were pleased to be progressing?
How would those close to you notice you were pleased to be progressing?
How would they notice you had noticed your positive impact on them?

What’s been better since our last session?
How’d you do that?
How did you hold on to enough hope for change and come back to therapy, even though things got worse?
What skills did you draw upon to make those changes since our last session?
What areas of your life got better other than the one we discussed in our last session?
What’s been better since we last met?
What role did you play in things getting better since we last met?
What role did others play?
What are your best hopes for this session?
What does that progress do to your thoughts about the future?
Was this change a big surprise or a little surprise?