Strength-Based Approach to Therapy: How It Works, Examples, & What to Expect

What Is a Strength Based Approach to Therapy?

Strength-based approaches to therapy build on clients’ own inner strengths instead of trying to fix weaknesses or deficits. Everyone has character strengths, core patterns of thinking and behaving that are positive and, when used intentionally, benefit the individual and those around them.²

In working with a therapist who uses a strength-based, humanistic approach, clients first work to identify their own strengths using tools like questionnaires, formal strengths inventories, and worksheets, and then determine ways to use those strengths to improve their life. Additionally, a strength-based approach emphasizes the importance of identifying and using support resources available in the client’s life to help them see beyond what is lacking in their lives.⁴

What Actually Are “Strengths”?

While strengths do involve skills, strengths are more than what people do. They are traits that encompass who they are and apply across many different situations in someone’s life.³ For example, caregiving is a skill, while the kindness and love that underlie caregiving are character strengths.

Principles of the Strength-Based Approach

Strength-based therapy upholds the principle that all people have inherent value, and a therapist using this approach helps clients see their own worth. Unfortunately, many people don’t recognize their own character strengths that make up who they are. Instead, they are quick to identify what they perceive to be faults and weaknesses. Strength-based therapy guides people in forming a new relationship with themselves which in turn shapes their actions in their lives.

Here are some of the key concepts of strengths-based therapy:

Everyone Possesses Character Strengths

People’s struggles and challenges don’t define them. It’s our inherent positive traits that make us who we are and equip us to overcome challenges and struggles. When we can identify and build on our positive qualities, we flourish.

What We Focus on Is What Grows

Focusing on weaknesses, deficits, and problems causes those things to loom large and occupy our attention. Likewise, so does focusing on strengths, positive qualities in ourselves and others, and what is right. Strength-based therapy, therefore, concentrates on creating more good than it does trying to fix problems.

Words Matter

The language we used to describe ourselves, others, and our lives shapes our attitude and perspective. Negative self-talk can be damaging. In a strengths-based approach to therapy, people learn to think and speak positively rather than negatively.

Clients Tell Their Own Story

Therapists allow clients to talk about themselves and their lives to help both themselves and the therapist develop a deeper understanding of their situation. This is an important component of therapy because it helps the client become aware of their outlook and language. Then, the therapist can help the client reframe the way they view themselves and life in general.

Flexibility

Just as each person is unique, so, too, is the process of therapy. Discussions and goals are driven by the client. Further, there is no single right way to use character strengths in life. Instead of being told a formula for using strengths, clients explore ways they can use their strengths in their own unique situations and relationships.

Working With Others

Clients focus not just on improving their own lives but on using their strengths to help loved ones and their general community. Clients learn how to embrace their own traits as well as others’, and they explore ways to use their strengths for the benefit of society.

What Can a Strength-Based Approach Help With?

Strength-based therapy can be incorporated into many different types of therapy and can therefore help a wide range of people with a variety of challenges.

Specific conditions and issues that a strength-based approach can help with include:¹

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Schizophrenia
• Schizoaffective disorder
• Substance use and abuse
• Emotional difficulties stemming from past or current abuse or toxic relationships
• Issues caused by low self-esteem

It’s important to note that strength-based therapy isn’t designed to treat symptoms of mental illness like the psychotic features of schizophrenia. Instead, when an emphasis on identifying and using strengths is included as part of therapy and other treatment methods, people have a chance to tell their stories and discover new perspectives on themselves and their positive qualities. This can lead to a better quality of life despite living with even serious mental illness.

How Is Strength-Based Therapy Different from Other Types of Therapy?

Strength-based therapy is distinct from other kinds of therapy due to the emphasis on the client’s positive attributes and what is already working in someone’s life. It puts the client in the driver’s seat of their treatment and goal-setting.

Three main concepts set strength-based therapy apart from other forms of therapy:

1. A strength mindset over a deficit mindset

Like other forms of therapy, strength-based therapy is about growth and change. However, whereas many therapeutic approaches focus on identifying and correcting what is wrong (like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), for example, teaches people to recognize and catch their negative thoughts and then challenge them), strength-based therapy concentrates on what is right and how to create more of it.⁵

2. An Emphasis on the Client as the Expert

Because the focus is on the client’s identification and use of their own strengths, in a strength-based approach to therapy the client is the expert. The therapist isn’t there to fix problems, correct weaknesses, tell the client what their strengths are, or to determine goals; instead, the therapist is a guide in helping someone believe in themselves. This doesn’t mean, of course, that the therapist is passive. The therapist provides tools such as assessments and asks probing questions to lead clients along the path to self-discovery.

3. Less Emphasis on Diagnoses & Problems

Unlike other forms of therapy, conversations don’t center around problems. Therapists talk purposefully and meaningfully with clients to help them understand themselves positively, shape their goals, and build on what is already right.

The Phases of Strength Based Therapy

Dr. Y. Joel Wong, psychologist and professor in the Department of Counseling and Human Development at the University of Indiana in Bloomington describes four stages of a strength-based approach to therapy:²

1. In the expicitizing phase, the therapist and client work to identify and recognize the client’s unique strengths—to make them known, or explicit, to the client.
2. Next is the envisioning phase, in which clients explore their goals, hopes, and dreams for the future.
3. Next is the empowering phase in which clients identify ways they will use their strengths to meet their goals.
4. The final stage is the evolving stage in which the client identifies and embraces new growth and changes and makes plans to continue the momentum.

Rather than a rigid structure and set of procedures, this framework is merely a loose guide to provide general direction to a strength-based approach to therapy.

Strength Based Therapy Techniques

Like other therapeutic modalities, a therapist will select methods centered around a client’s particular needs.

When working with a strength-based professional they might employ some of the following interventions in sessions:⁶

• Identify strengths: In this strength-based exercise a client is presented with a list of strengths with their corresponding definitions to help them identify those which relate to them. People can also use this list as a point of reference to recognize their own qualities and virtues.
• Looking for signs of strength: This strategy consists of asking open-ended questions like, “What is something you’re good at?” helping someone uncover areas of strengths they already possess but didn’t list on the strengths list exercise, or that they might not have been aware of otherwise.
• Re-framing: This technique encourages a person to examine their flaws and reframe them into character virtues. For example, “I worry about what others think of me” could be reframed to, “I’m caring and compassionate towards others.” Cognitive reframing is also a great starting place for finding qualities that can enhance someone’s outlook about themselves and their environment.
• Strengths journaling: This practice involves a client keeping a journal to track their strengths and get into the habit of recognizing how these have helped them in specific situations. This increases self-awareness and enables the person to notice existing points of strength in their every-day life.
• Asking strengths growth questions: During this exercise the client is asked about how and when a strength benefits them the most so they can then utilize these in the best way possible. Examples could be, “Was there a time when you could have used this strength?” or, “Was there a time when you relied too heavily on this strength?”

Benefits of a Strength Based Approach

There are numerous benefits associated with a strengths-based approach that promote wellness and enhance the quality of life in those who engage in this form of treatment.

Benefits of a strengths based approach to therapy include:⁶

• Focuses on a person’s strengths and abilities instead of their shortcomings or problems.
• Provides a fresh perspective and invites the client to adopt a hopeful mindset without dismissing their struggles and frustrations.
• Enhances a client’s resilience and overall functioning that extends to different life areas.
• Promotes practices and language that bring out the person’s own strengths and resourcefulness, thus enhancing a sense of self-efficacy and facilitating change.
• People gain practical tools to better cope when faced with problems.
• Can be applied to different populations and conditions as well as a stand-alone treatment or in combination with other forms of therapy.
• Incorporates the client’s unique strengths, insight, resilience, life experiences, cultural background, values, social supports, and opinions about what might assist them.
• Interventions are person-centered and client-led, honoring the person’s preferences throughout the course of treatment.
• Individuals are approached in a respectful and compassionate manner.

Risks of Strength-Based Therapy

One potential risk of strength-based therapy is that an exclusive focus on strengths may leave serious issues unaddressed.⁴ People typically come to therapy for assistance in dealing with problems that are interfering in their lives. Whether the difficulties are related to a mental health condition like anxiety or depression or an external circumstance such as loss or relationship difficulties, these problems need to be addressed.

Also, if the concept of strengths isn’t explained or understood properly, people might actually become less motivated to change and risk stagnation rather than growth.¹ While character strengths are inherent traits, they aren’t static. We can all develop and enhance them in order to improve ourselves, lives, and relationships. Therapists must intentionally emphasize that strengths aren’t qualities that remain unchanged so that clients use them to grow and overcome difficulties.

Strength Based Perspective Examples

A strength-based approach can help people overcome difficulties and thrive despite ongoing challenges or new problems that pop up as an inevitable part of life.

These examples illustrate how such an approach can help with substance use and addictions, youth with disabilities or chronic illness, and depression:

Strength-Based Therapy for Substance Use and Addictions

A strength-based approach can be powerful in helping people overcome substance use and addiction.⁷ Instead of focusing on weakness or helplessness, a strength-focused approach helps people recognize their many positive qualities and use those qualities to overcome addiction, build strong relationships, and create and meet life goals. With this approach, people embrace self-worth, develop power and control over their addiction, separate themselves from past issues, and begin to form new relationships with loved ones and their greater community.

Strength-Based Therapy for Youth with Disabilities or Chronic Illness

Youth and teens living with disabilities or chronic illnesses can benefit from strengths-based therapy to improve the quality of their lives.⁸ While this type of therapy doesn’t treat the illness or disability, it can help kids see themselves in new ways. They learn to identify and embrace their positive qualities rather than defining themselves largely by their disability or illness.

A child who is naturally curious and energized by learning new things can then work with the therapist to brainstorm new things they can learn about and do rather than feeling stuck by their limitations. When kids know their strengths and develop ways to use them in their daily lives, they can flourish in spite of even large obstacles.

Strength-Based Therapy for Depression

Strength-based therapy for depression offers a shift in focus from what is wrong to what is right. Instead of concentrating on alleviating depression symptoms or fixing perceived personal weaknesses, a therapist using a strength-based approach helps clients change their thinking about themselves and their lives.(F9)

Depression clouds reality, so strength-based therapy helps people see themselves realistically and holistically. Through the use of questionnaires, strengths surveys and inventories, and deep discussions with the therapist, clients begin to not just recognize that they have strengths but accept, embrace, and use them. This, in turn, restores something critical that depression steals: hope.⁹

How to Find a Therapist Who Uses a Strengths Perspective

Finding a therapist who uses a strength-based approach is similar to finding any type of therapist. Check many places to help you find a therapist, and ask specifically whether the therapist uses this approach when they work with clients.

When looking for a therapist:

• Ask your primary doctor for a referral.
• Talk with friends and family members you trust to see if they have recommendations
• Mental health graduate schools often provide counseling services as part of their education and training programs. If you live near one, check their website or call the graduate office to ask about services they provide and whether they offer sessions using a strength-based approach
• Check with local community centers, libraries, hospitals, and mental health organizations. Often, they have brochures and other resources to help connect people with therapists, and a therapist’s brochures usually specify their credentials and types of therapy they provide
• Use an online therapist directory to find lists of local therapists, and then check those therapists’ credentials on their own website or by calling their office to see if they use as strength-based approach

Who Is Able to Provide Strength-Based Therapy?

Mental health professionals with master’s or doctorate degrees who are licensed in their state can provide therapy. Beyond this requirement, there is no special certification needed to use a strength-based approach to therapy because it’s an approach that can be incorporated into any type of therapy. Therapists can, however, receive special training in using strengths with clients. When you look for a therapist, first seek one with an advanced degree and licensure. Then, check their bio on their website or call their office to ask whether they use a strength-based approach in their practice.

Cost of Strength-Based Therapy and Does Insurance Typically Cover It?

The cost of therapy can range from approximately $50 to $250 per hour.¹⁰ Sometimes, insurance will cover at least part of the cost of many mental health therapies (you’ll still be responsible for requirements such as co-payments and meeting your deductible). To see if your insurance company does, call the number on the back of your card or visit their website. The next step is to see if a therapist you’re interested in working with accepts insurance. Call their office or check their website to learn whether they accept insurance and if they accept your plan.

Even if your insurance does offer mental health benefits, strength based therapy may or may not be covered. Your insurance may cover the cost of therapy that uses a strength-based approach depending on factors common to all mental health insurance coverage:¹¹

• Insurance covers specific mental health diagnoses. If you don’t have a diagnosis but are seeing a therapist to overcome a challenging situation or generally improve the quality of your life, therapy likely won’t be covered.
• To be reimbursed by insurance companies, therapists must use techniques proven by research to help with that diagnosis. Because strength-based therapy is more of an approach to working with people than it is a cohesive mental health therapy like CBT or acceptance and commitment therapy but instead is an underlying belief system that drives a therapist’s work with clients, it’s not covered in its own right. However, a therapist using CBT to treat depression may use a strengths-based approach within the framework of CBT. In that case, insurance that covers mental health therapy will likely cover this therapy.

Key Questions to Ask a Therapist When Considering a Strength-Based Approach

Visiting with a therapist in person or on the phone before you officially begin therapy can help you decide if a therapist or type of therapy, including a strengths-based approach, is right for you. Consider your reason for seeking therapy and what you want to get out of treatment, and see if the information you receive fits.

These questions can be useful in helping you determine if a strength-based approach is right for you:

• I have specific problems I’d like to talk about. Will you help me with those?
• What other types of therapy do you use when working with clients?
• How will you determine what therapy techniques you’ll use with me?
• How do you help me discover my strengths? (Do you use formal tests and inventories, or do you ask me questions?)
• I know that strength-based therapy is client-driven and that I’ll determine my goals and ways to use my strengths, but I don’t feel ready for that. How much guidance will you provide?

When you speak with a therapist in person or on the phone, pay attention to the information you learn as well as how you feel when talking to the therapist. It’s important to find a therapist you feel comfortable talking to and who will answer your questions patiently and openly.

Is Strength-Based Therapy Effective?

Research demonstrates that when people know and use their strengths, they experience improved self-esteem, report feeling happier, and are motivated to pursue and achieve meaningful goals.³ Multiple research studies have investigated and supported the effectiveness of a strengths-based approach to therapy.

Research that supports the efficacy of strength-based therapy includes:

• In 2006, Dr. Y. Joel Wong of the University of Indiana published a research-backed article demonstrating that a strength-based approach to therapy helps people develop a more balanced perspective of themselves and their problems, helps build resilience and prevent future problems from overwhelming people, and helps people thrive despite challenges.²
• A 2014 analysis by Dr. Tayyab Rashid at the University of Toronto examined existing studies and found that a therapeutic approach that goes beyond addressing deficits and problems to identify, build, and enhance strengths and other positive areas of life is effective in helping people enhance the quality of their lives and experience happiness despite obstacles.¹²

Criticisms of Strength-Based Therapy

Despite its effectiveness, strength-based therapy isn’t without critics. Some criticisms of this approach include:^2,4,13,14

• It can be too focused on the client, leaving the therapist to play a minimal role in the therapeutic process; however, many people seeking therapy desire a therapist who provides more guidance and direction.
• Too much emphasis is placed on achieving high self-esteem when there is a lack of evidence to support that high self-esteem is directly beneficial.
• It can be poorly defined and lacking a predictable structure.
• Because it is a newer therapy, it lacks multiple decades of research that support other types of therapy.
• It is heavily focused on Western notions of optimal functioning and might not take into account other cultural conceptions of strengths. (That said, therapists who specifically use the VIA Character set of 24 character strengths are using well-researched traits that apply to people across time and cultures.)

History of the Strength-Based Approach to Therapy

The strength-based approach to therapy is fairly new to the mental health therapy scene, making an official appearance with Donald Clifton’s strengths work in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Dennis Saleebey was another early leader and proponent, emphasizing the importance of utilizing people’s own strengths in the field of social work.¹³ The timing coincides with the onset of the positive psychology movement.

The strength-based approach, while new, has roots in older, more traditional forms of therapy. Humanistic psychologists such as Carl Rogers, who founded person-centered therapy, and Abraham Maslow, who developed a hierarchy of needs to explain human motivation and development, believed that people are not defined by their illness and have inherent strengths to draw from in order to solve problems and live well.¹³ Other forms of therapy, too, such as solution-focused therapy and narrative therapy, have emphasized the importance of helping people recognize and use their strengths to surpass obstacles and meet their goals.

Final Thoughts on Strength Based Therapy

Overall, a strength-based approach to therapy can help you see and embrace your own best qualities and develop a positive outlook on yourself and your life. It can boost your self-confidence, motivation, resilience, and coping skills. People who have used strength-based therapy have reported feeling more energized with enhanced wellbeing.³ If you are seeking to do more than solve problems or improve symptoms of a mental health disorder, strength-based therapy may be something to consider.