We are all mortal and are aware of this fact. We are all unique and therefore can never be completely understood by others. We are not beholden to our natural drives and have to search for meaning beyond the biological imperatives of survival and procreation. Finally, life presents us with the need to make fateful decisions that come at a steep cost and whose consequences cannot be fully anticipated. Every cognitively mature person will have to deal with the existential problems listed above in one of three ways: avoid them, outsource them, or confront them.

Despite being one of the most popular forms of therapy, psychodynamic therapy is often somewhat misunderstood by its practitioners and their clients. Because the psychodynamic tradition was created by Sigmund Freud, psychodynamic therapy is often erroneously conflated with psychoanalysis. Also, the name itself can be misleading to many people due to its Greek roots. Let’s unpack it step-by-step.

CBT is based on the idea that maladaptive thought patterns lead to maladaptive emotions and behaviors, which, in turn, cause dysfunction in a person's life. This whole cognitive machine (the “C” in CBT) leads people to feel and behave (the “B”) a certain way. The role of therapy (the “T”), then, is to educate the client about the existence of said cognitive machine and help him or her reprogram it.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) straddles the worlds of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and coaching. Just like CBT, SFBT is an evidence-based psychotherapeutic modality, which means there is authoritative research confirming its efficacy. When deployed without a specialized license, disconnected from a specific mental-health diagnosis, and not paid for via insurance, SFBT, in effect, becomes coaching.