Watch for questions that sound solution-focused but are really problem-solving in disguise.
A client tells you they joined a gym and went twice last week. It’s tempting to ask, “What can you do to keep this up?” or “How could you add a third day?”
Those questions carry two problems.
First, they assume what the client wants, without asking.
Second, they keep the client on the problem side, working to fix something, instead of the other side, already living the future they want.
Instead, get curious: “How’d you get yourself to do that?” Then ask the question: “What would you want to take away from this conversation that would tell you it was worthwhile?”
Remember, just because a question sounds solution-focused doesn’t mean it is.
Put the Client on the Other Side of the Problem
I want to talk about a mistake that can creep into a coach’s work, particularly for coaches newer to the solution-focused approach. It’s asking a question that sounds solution-focused but actually is a problem-solving question dressed up in solution-focused clothes.
Here’s an example. A client who’s struggled to get more exercise starts the session by telling you they’ve finally joined a gym and started out by going twice in the last week. That’s great, right? So how do you respond?
The temptation is to turn that success into a strategy to help the client stay the course and capitalize on the success.
So it seems logical to ask questions like: “What can you do to keep up this routine?” “If you already went twice last week, how could you add a day so you can get in three workouts?” “How could you make sure this happens again?”
But there are two problems with these questions. The first is that they assume what the client wants.
- “Keep up this routine” and “make sure this happens again” assumes maintenance is a concern and the goal.
- “Add one more day” assumes that twice a week isn’t quite enough and that increasing the frequency should be the goal. And prescribes the specific frequency without the client ever weighing in.
The client’s account, while something to admire, doesn’t tell you what they want to get out of the session, or if they mentioned just it in passing on the way to talking about something else that was more important or urgent to them at the moment..
The second problem is which side of the problem the practitioner situates the client.
In problem-solving models, the client is situated in the present with the problem standing between them and the future they want. The work of the coach is to help the client define what they can do to resolve the problem by moving from the problem in the present to something better in the future.
In the solution-focused approach, we change the time orientation and use language to situate the client in their better future when the problem would already have been resolved or no longer an issue. Then, we work backward in time from that better future to the present when the client is already making progress forward.
Problem-solving keeps the client on the side with the problem. Solution-focused puts the client on the other side of the problem, in the realm of their better future.
So going back to the joined-the-gym-went-twice scenario, the first thing we’d do is simply get curious about their accomplishment:
Okay! So how’d you get yourself to do that? What difference did going make for you?
But then, before we’d go much farther, we’d ask the most fundamental question of all: “What would you want to take away from our conversation that tell you it had been worthwhile?”
Remember: just because a question sounds solution-focused doesn’t mean it is. Ask yourself whether you’re using questions to narrow the focus and prescribe a fix, or to expand the client’s thinking about what they want, what they have, and what’s next.
Putting the client on the other side of the problem, and asking what they want from the conversation before building on a win, is one of the core competencies practitioners build in Foundations in Solution-Focused Health Coaching, the certification for health and performance professionals.
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References
- Teplow, D. (2026). Beware of Problem-Solving Dressed Up in a Solution-Focused Question. The Solution-Focused Practice.