Solution Focused Therapy (SFT) for Working with Autistic Clients

This live, interactive online course led by Paul Grantham will explore how to apply Solution Focused Therapy (SFT / SFBT) when working with autistic clients. The focus is on leveraging strengths, preferred futures, and small, achievable steps rather than dwelling on deficits or trying to make clients conform to neurotypical norms. Participants will learn how to adapt solution‐focused techniques to suit the communication styles, processing needs, and unique preferences of autistic people, to foster empowerment, collaboration, and well-being.

Emerging evidence suggests that Solution Focused Therapy (SFT) can be highly beneficial when adapted for autistic clients and their families. Studies and case reports indicate that SFT promotes well-being, resilience, and goal attainment by focusing on strengths, preferences, and achievable change rather than deficits. Research with parents of autistic children shows improvements in well-being and post-traumatic growth following brief SFT interventions, while pilot studies in schools demonstrate that solution-focused conversations can enhance engagement and emotional regulation in autistic pupils. SFT has also shown effectiveness with individuals with intellectual disabilities, suggesting its adaptability for varied cognitive and communication profiles. Clinicians report that the approach complements autism-affirming practice, offering a flexible, collaborative, and empowering framework that respects neurodiversity and supports autonomy. Its structured yet optimistic focus on “what works” makes it well suited to brief or goal-oriented therapeutic settings. The course will outline both the strengths and limitations of applying SFT with autistic clients, highlighting when and how adaptations—such as pacing, visual supports, and clear, concrete language—are most effective. Overall, the evidence points to SFT as a promising, compassionate, and practical approach for enhancing well-being and fostering meaningful progress in autistic individuals and their support networks.

Key Learning Outcomes | By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Describe the core principles of Solution Focused Therapy and how they might be especially helpful (or need adapting) when working with autistic clients.
• Recognise and adjust for communication differences, processing speed, sensory sensitivities, and varied expressive styles in autistic people, while using solution‐focused tools like scaling, the miracle question, best hopes, etc.
• Design therapeutic conversations and goal‐setting that are neuroaffirming: respecting autistic identity, centring what the individual wants, not what others expect.
• Apply solution‐focused supervision and feedback to their practice to ensure client comfort, safety, and co‐constructed therapeutic goals.