Brief Counseling in Schools: a Solution-Focused Brief Counseling (SFBC) Approach for School Counselor in Indonesia

Abstract

In order to solve the problems on school setting which faced by students, then one of the activities performed by school counselors is to provide counseling services to students. School counselors spend a considerable amount of time addressing problems with complex solutions, such as poor grades, fights in the hallway, drug abuse, bullying, chronic absences, and uncooperative parents. School counselors are expected to help remedy all of those problems. Limited time in the school setting makes school counselors amenable to a new approach, especially because of the disproportionate counselor-student ratio. By looking many approaches that counseling can take with, a brief format ideally fits the school counseling environment. One popular approach to brief therapy used in the practice of therapy or counseling approaches today is the Solution-Focused Brief Counseling (SFBC). Solution-focused brief counseling offers the unique contribution of affirming clients' strengths. SFBC is future-oriented and solution-focused rather than problem-focused to resolve current concerns rather than find the cause of the problem. SFBC is considered more time-efficient and more realistic for a school setting than other time-intense approaches. SFBC emphasizes the concept of wellness which students are seen as having the resources to solve their own problems. Counselors feel more upbeat as they help students to recognize their strengths and resources. Focusing on solutions and achieving goals can reinforce counselors in feeling they are doing their job more confidently and more competently.

Keywords: Brief counseling, solution focused brief counseling approach, school counselor