Every Solution-Focused Conversation Has the Same Three Parts

Suppose the next conversation you have with a client, whether it lasts five minutes or fifty, has a structure you could count on completely to help the client make progress toward their goals. What would that free you up to do?

That structure exists, and it's much simpler than most coaches might expect. As Dr. Deborah Teplow, our co-founder, describes it: "Every Solution-Focused conversation has three parts, every time, no matter how long the conversation lasts: what the person wants, what's already working, and what's next. All three, every session."

Her comparison makes it stick: "It's like driving a car. Think about it. You start it, you drive it, and you park it. You can't skip a part, even if the trip is short."

This post walks through each part, and through the question most practitioners ask next: why can't the parts flex?

Structure is a real point of difference between approaches. Solution-Focused conversations hold their three-part shape every time. Motivational Interviewing, by its own account, works differently: its four tasks of engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning don't have to happen in a strict sequence, and Miller and Rollnick are clear that practitioners should move flexibly among them in response to the moment.

Deborah's explanation for why Solution-Focused practice holds its shape: "That's not because the model can't adapt, but because the three parts are crucial for every conversation designed to lead to change. You have to know where the client wants to end up, what they already have going for them that can help them get there, and a map of the journey. Otherwise, where would they go? And how would they get there?"

A destination, the resources for the trip, and the map. Skip one and the conversation may be pleasant, but it isn't built to produce change.

Most coaching works from the present forward: here's the problem, here's the solution, here's the implementation plan. Solution-Focused coaching works backward, starting with "the destination the client wants to arrive at, the preferred future the client dreams of," and working its way back from there.

The conversation then travels from the distant future to the near one. In Deborah's words: "What would the client notice in the next seven or ten days that would tell them things were starting to shift, starting to improve? It's a sign that they're making progress."

That phrase carries more weight than it appears to. A sign isn't a milestone the client can fail to meet. It's something they'd notice.

The middle of the conversation gathers evidence. Exceptions: moments when the better future already showed up, even slightly. The client may have cooked a meal at home, taken a walk, or gotten to sleep on time, not by chance, but because they made it happen. As Deborah put it, "That's evidence that the better future is already present to some degree."

The client's own words are the working material. We listen for the first word or phrase that points toward what the client wants, and we build the next question straight from it. That skill runs deep enough to earn its own article later in this series.

What's next has three parts: the near future, seven to ten days out; the immediate future, the next twenty-four hours; and a conclusion. The near-future piece is the sign that the client is making progress and asks what the client will notice that tells them something is shifting. The immediate future narrows that down further. As Deborah put it: "The 24-hour action has one job: bettering the chances that the shift at the seven to ten days will have happened. This is the tiniest doable step that makes the near future more likely."

Notice how the time perspective of the three-part solution-focused structure works. In part one, we start with the client's preferred future, out in the distance. In part two, we look for what's already working in the present. In part three, we shrink the timeframe to seven to ten days out, to identify signs of progress. We end by zeroing in on the next twenty-four hours, to find the tiniest doable step that makes that progress more likely.

One more element belongs to the structure of every Solution-Focused conversation: other people. "Change never occurs to the client outside of a social system, and their future always includes it," Deborah notes. A practitioner can use other approaches with high fidelity and never once ask who else would notice a change. "In Solution-Focused coaching, that question isn't optional. It's imperative."

Who else would notice? It's a small question with a long reach. It locates the change inside the client's real life, where follow-through actually happens.

You don't need all three parts to feel the difference. Here's a single question Deborah suggests, and it works in almost any session: "Suppose you were eating even just the tiniest bit better, and that shift started tomorrow. What do you think you might be doing?"

Swap in whatever your client cares about. Then watch what happens. Clients pause, think, and almost always say some version of "that's a good question, I never thought of it." Then they come up with ideas nobody could have handed them.

The free training walks through all three parts step by step, with a live demonstration, and you'll get the companion guide with the exact questions to use in your next session.