1. A solution-oriented therapist might ask her client, a compulsive shopper, which of the following questions?
a. Whohasthebestshoesalethisweek,Macy’sorNordstrom’s?
b. If a miracle happened and your shopping compulsion was solved overnight, how would you know it was
solved, and what would be different?
c. Who in your family is most affected when you go on a spending spree?
d. At what point in your life did you develop this fixation on shopping?
2. The postmodern view incorporates all of the following concepts except for the notion that:
a. reality is objectively defined.
b. reality is based on the use of language.
c. reality is socially constructed.
d. each individual experiences their own unique reality.
3. Donna feels certain that no one will ever want to hire her because she has a timid personality. Her solution-
oriented therapist would be most inclined to:
a. explore her early childhood experiences with being rejected.
b. consider her irrational belief to be indicative of psychopathology.
c. ask Donna to examine another side of the story she is presenting about herself and think of times when she
was accepted by others.
d. prescribe medication for her anxiety issues.
4. In the view of the postmodern therapist, the most essential element of therapy is:
a. assessment.
b. the collaborative therapeutic relationship.
c. diagnosis.
d. brief course of treatment.
5. All of the following are techniques used in solution-focused therapy except for:
a. using the reflecting team.
b. scaling questions.
c. the miracle question.
d. formula first session task.
6. Social constructionism explains how values are transmitted through language by the social milieu and suggests that
individuals are constantly changing with the ebb and flow of the influences of all of the following except:
a. family.
b. culture.
c. behavior.
d. society.
7. All are true of solution-focused brief therapists except that they:
a. have little interest in a client exploring past problems.
b. focusontheclient’searlychildhoodexperiences.
c. believe that the cause of a problem is not necessarily related to its solution.
d. expect that two clients may have different solutions to the same problem.
8. In the solution-oriented approach, which is not considered one of the three basic parts to the structure of
summary feedback?
a. Compliments
b. A bridge
c. Expressing concern
d. Suggesting a task
9. ItiswithinthescopeofSFBTpracticetoallowforsomediscussionof__________tovalidateclients’
experience.
a. presenting problems
b. behavioral issues in the past
c. therapist personal issues
d. past issues
10. Which of the following is false as it applies to the practice of solution-focused brief therapy?
a. Individuals who come to therapy have the capability of behaving effectively.
b. There are advantages to a positive focus on solutions and on the future.
c. Clients want to change, have the capacity to change, and are doing their best to make change happen.
d. Usingtechniquesintherapyisawayofdiscountingaclient’scapacitytofindhisorherownway.
11. Narrative therapy has been found to be particularly effective with diverse client populations for all of the following
reasons except:
a. it was founded in a sociocultural context.
b. it allows clients to tell their unique stories from their perspective.
c. it defines problems within a social, cultural, political, and relational context.
d. it teaches diverse clients to replace their own narratives with ones that conform more closely to the ideals
and values of mainstream culture.
12. The role of the leader in solution-focused therapy groups is not:
a. to set the tone of focusing on solutions.
b. to provide clients with simple solutions to their problems.
c. to create a setting where the client feels resourceful and capable.
d. to skillfully ask questions to guide clients to finding solutions to their problems.
13. Which of these solution-focused therapy techniques involves asking clients to describe times in their lives when they
were able to solve their problem or when their problem was less severe?
a. Pre-therapy change
b. The miracle question
c. Exception questions
d. Scaling
14. Solution-focused brief therapy has parallels with______________, which concentrates on what is right and what
is working for people rather than dwelling on deficits, weaknesses, and problems.
a. brief psychodynamic therapy
b. positive psychology
c. Adlerian therapy
d. REBT
15. Which of the following statements about creating alternative stories is not true?
a. Constructing new stories goes hand in hand with deconstructing problem-saturated narratives.
b. Thenarrativetherapistanalyzesandinterpretsthemeaningofaclient’sstory.
c. The therapist works with clients collaboratively by helping them construct more coherent and comprehensive
stories that they live by.
d. The development of alternative stories is an enactment of ultimate hope.
16. From a social constructionist perspective, change begins with:
a. deconstructing the power of cultural narratives.
b. understanding the roots of a problem.
c. thetherapist’sskillinusingconfrontationaltechniques.
d. understanding and accepting objective reality.
17. Of the following, what is an interest that social constructionists tend to share?
a. Helping clients better understand objective reality
b. Using paradoxical techniques
c. Using a genogram to teach families about conflicts
d. Generating new meaning in the lives of individuals
18. The techniques of externalization and developing unique events are associated primarily with:
a. solution-oriented therapy.
b. the linguistic approach.
c. the narrative approach.
d. the reflecting team.
19. Narrative therapists attempt to do all of the following except:
a. engage people in deconstructing problem-saturated stories.
b. discover preferred directions and new possibilities.
c. create new stories.
d. encourage free association.
20. Narrativetherapistspayattentionto“sparklingmoments.”Theseare:
a. moments when the client feels exhilarated.
b. identifyinginstanceswhentheproblemdidnotcompletelydominatetheclient’slife.
c. times when significant others give the client unconditional love.
d. events characterized by a striving to overcome barriers.
21. The creation of the self, which dominated the modernist search for human essence and truth:
a. is being replaced by postmodernists with the concept of socially storied lives.
b. is also a key concept of the postmodern approaches.
c. is more relevant in the narrative approach than it is in solution-oriented therapy.
d. has proven to be completely irrelevant to all counselors and therapists practicing today.
22. A limitation of the postmodern approaches is:
a. therapists require extensive training in providing brief therapy.
b. inexperienced therapists may over rely on techniques and appear mechanistic.
c. the use of open-ended questioning.
d. its lack of applicability to group counseling.
23. In regards to brief therapy, the average length of therapy is __________, with the most common length being only
one session.
a. one to two months of sessions
b. two to three weeks
c. one to three sessions
d. three to eight sessions
24. The founder(s) of solution-focused brief therapy is (are):
a. Michael White and David Epston.
b. Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer.
c. Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.
d. Donald Meichenbaum.
25. The founder(s) of narrative therapy is (are):
a. Michael White and David Epston.
b. Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer.
c. Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.
d. Donald Meichenbaum.
26. The solution-focused brief therapy therapeutic process rests on the foundation that clients are:
a. in need of an expert.
b. unable to make decisions.
c. the experts on their own lives.
d. passive participants in their journey.
27. Narrative conversations do not follow the linear progression described here; it is better to think of these steps in
terms of __________ progression.
a. lateral
b. cyclical
c. parallel
d. perpendicular
28. Constructing counter stories goes hand in hand with:
a. deconstruction.
b. reconstruction.
c. demolition.
d. rebuilding.
29. One narrative technique for consolidating the gains a client makes involves a therapist writing letters to the person.
This is:
a. externalization and deconstruction.
b. search for unique outcomes.
c. alternative stories and reauthoring.
d. documenting the evidence.
30. A main task of the narrative therapist is to help clients construct a:
a. negative story line.
b. preferred story line.
c. newfaçade.
d. second personality.
31. There are three kinds of solution-focused therapeutic relationships. The client and therapist jointly identify a problem
and a solution to work toward describes which relationship?
a. Customer
b. Complaint
c. Visitor
d. Shopper
32. There are three kinds of solution-focused therapeutic relationships. The client comes to therapy because someone
else (a spouse, parent, teacher, or probation officer) thinks the client has a problem describes which relationship?
a. Customer
b. Complaint
c. Visitor
d. Shopper
33. There are three kinds of solution-focused therapeutic relationships. The client describes a problem but is not able or
willingtoassumearoleinconstructingasolution,believingthatasolutionisdependentonsomeoneelse’sactions
describes which relationship?
a. Customer
b. Complaint
c. Visitor
d. Shopper
34. Duringthesolutionfocusedinitialtherapysession,itiscommonforsolutionfocusedtherapiststoask,“Whathave
youdonesinceyoucalledfortheappointmentthathasmadeadifferenceinyourproblem?”Thisdescribes:
a. formula first session task.
b. the miracle question.
c. pretherapy change.
d. exception questions.
35. From the very first solution-focused interview, the therapist is mindful of working toward:
a. the miracle question.
b. pretherapy change.
c. formula first session task.
d. termination.
36. Narrative therapy has been effectively applied in school settings.
a. True
b. False
37. SFBT is an optimistic, antideterministic, future-oriented approach based on the assumption that clients have the
ability to change quickly and can create a problem-free language as they strive for a new reality.
a. True
b. False
38. The use of techniques is fundamental in narrative therapy.
a. True
b. False
39. A key theme of SFBT is, when you know what is working, do more of it. If something is not working, try something
different.
a. True
b. False
40. Narrativetherapistspaysignificantattentiontoaclient’spastasithelpsthemunderstandtheoriginsofclient’s
stories.
a. True
b. False
41. In solution-focused therapy, exceptionsrepresentinstanceswhenaparticularprobleminaclient’slifewasnot
prominent.
a. True
b. False
42. The solution-focused approach was originally designed as a brief model of psychotherapy.
a. True
b. False
43. The main goal of brief therapy is to help clients efficiently resolve problems and to move forward as quickly as
possible.
a. True
b. False
44. In solution-focused brief therapy, the role of the client is to create, explore, and co-author his or her evolving story.
a. True
b. False
45. Without the cultural conditions that accept the concept of depression, talking about a person as depressed would
mean nothing.
a. True
b. False
46. Solution-focused brief therapy differs from traditional therapies by eschewing the past in favor of both the present
and the future.
a. True
b. False
47. Assessment and therapy techniques are more important than empathy to a social constructionist.
a. True
b. False
48. In postmodern thinking, language and the use of language in stories create meaning.
a. True
b. False
49. Thelinguisticapproachstressestheexpertroleofthetherapistinsuggestingsolutionstoafamily’sproblems.
a. True
b. False
50. Narrative therapy is a strengths-based approach that emphasizes collaboration between client and therapist to help
clients view themselves as empowered and living the way they want.
a. True
b. False
51. Even science is not free from the influence of such processes of social construction.
a. True
b. False
52. Solution-focused therapists often use scaling questions.
a. True
b. False
53. Modernists believe in the ability to describe objective reality accurately and assume that it can be observed and
systematically known through the scientific method.
a. True
b. False
54. In solution-focused therapy, behavior change is viewed as the most effective approach to assisting people in
enhancing their lives.
a. True
b. False
55. In social constructionism, the therapist assumes the role of expert, rather than adopting a collaborative or consultative
stance.
a. True
b. False
56. Externalizing conversations counteract oppressive, problem-saturated stories and empower clients to feel competent
to handle the problems they face.
a. True
b. False
57. Solution-focused brief therapy is grounded on the optimistic assumption that people are healthy and competent and
have the ability to construct solutions that can enhance their lives.
a. True
b. False
58. Clients are never stuck in a pattern of living a problem-saturated story that does not work.
a. True
b. False
59. Thenarrativeemphasisoncreatinganappreciativeaudiencefornewdevelopmentsinanindividual’slifelendsitself
to group counseling.
a. True
b. False
60. All social constructionist theories emphasize listening to clients without judgment or blame, affirming and valuing
them.
a. True
b. False