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Choose your solution focused therapy training path

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Dr. James Whitfield UK & EU Practice Editor 7 min read
Outline

Compare solution focused therapy training paths

Scroll the table sideways to view every column

Provider Format Hours Supervised practice
Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy, Advanced Certificate in Solution-Focused Practice Self-paced online: written materials, recorded lectures, clinical demonstrations, structured practice exercises 22 CE credit/clock hours Listing names structured practice exercises. It does not name a live supervision hour
APT, Solution-Focused Therapy Essentials Online anytime, 16 modules, no start date 18 hours A learner comment on the page calls the exercises optional. The page does not name a supervision hour
Denver Center for Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Basics Live. October 13 to 14, 2026, Littleton. December 7 to 8, 2026, online. Later dates on the same page 2 days, 13 CE hours You practice the skills in a supervised setting during the class. Methods named: demonstrations, role plays, discussions
BRIEF, Foundation Level 1, toward the BRIEF Certificate Online. January 19 to 20, 2027, and April 13 to 14, 2027 Level 1 is two days, twelve hours. The certificate assignment requires 8 days of training with BRIEF Level 1 uses practice in pairs, threes, and groups, aimed at doing and supervising direct work. If you already have 8 days with BRIEF, the certificate page says you can submit without further courses or supervision
Online CE Credits, Certificate in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Self-paced. The page says you can finish the training requirements in about 16 to 17 hours. Five courses 15.25 CE Up to four 1-hour consultation groups included. That is consultation, not a supervision hour the page requires before the certificate

Then match the same provider to the certificate it awards, the cost range, and your next step.

Scroll the table sideways to view every column

Provider Certificate awarded Cost range Next step
Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy, Advanced Certificate in Solution-Focused Practice Listing is titled a 22-hour Advanced Certificate $495 (read September 25, 2026) If you want a named certificate on your own clock, confirm your board accepts this provider's CE before you pay
APT, Solution-Focused Therapy Essentials Printable APT accreditation Level 2, stated as APT Registration, Level 2 (18 hours CPD), after the course and exam $340.00 USD (read September 25, 2026) If you want a certificate you can print, compare this 18-hour listing with the Institute 22-hour listing on credit your board accepts
Denver Center for Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Basics CEU certificate after the class. IASTI practitioner certificate is a separate path and is not a clinical license. NBCC credit: in-person dates only. Online offerings are not eligible Early $250 / regular $275 / group of 3 or more $225 (read September 25, 2026) If you need NBCC credit, book an in-person Littleton date. If you need the live practice and can skip NBCC, an online date is listed
BRIEF, Foundation Level 1, toward the BRIEF Certificate BRIEF Certificate in Solution Focused Practice, after 8 days plus a 2,000 to 2,500 description of a first session. Certificate page had no dates stored £390.00 for Level 1 (read September 25, 2026). Certificate page listed no price Book Level 1 only if you can see a path to 8 days. Read the certificate page again before you assume a fee
Online CE Credits, Certificate in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Program Certificate of Completion from Online CE Credits after training, quizzes, and evaluation. Optional SFT-PT letters come from Mind Works Continuing Education, LLC, not from Online CE Credits. No extra fee if you finish the full curriculum $457 (read September 25, 2026). An installment plan is offered; the page did not show a second figure in the price line If you want letters after your name, read the Mind Works split on their page before you treat $457 as that credential

Prices and plan details from each provider’s public page, read September 25, 2026.

Open the page again before you pay. Denver states that its practitioner certificate is not a clinical license. Do not treat any row as permission to practice until your board says so.

You use solution focused therapy training to pick a path, not to reprint a syllabus. Five listings are enough to choose a first move. A sixth program may fit you better. The provider page is the record.

If you typed solution based therapy training, the listings still use solution-focused or SFBT. Start with hours, format, and the certificate name. Do not pick a course because a search box accepted a near miss.

When you can ask the questions in the room, use the solution-focused therapy questions guide for the stems. Book the course only after you know which question you will try on Tuesday.

Educational content for you as a licensed clinician. Board, payer, and employer rules decide what counts. Confirm those rules before you treat any certificate as permission to practice.

Email me the one-page plan

Get the printable professional development plan: one focus theme, one try, one reading, monthly check-in rows, and a CPD/CEU log column.

  • Five-line skeleton: focus theme, one try, one reading, monthly check-in, CPD/CEU log
  • Four monthly rows that ask whether you tried the move, not how you score
  • CPD/CEU log with date, title, provider, hours, and focus-tie column
  • Reminder that you set the goals; this is not a ranking or an owner file

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Read the supervised-practice column twice

“Practice” on a listing is not one thing. You want the sentence that says who is in the room with you.

Denver’s basics page says you will practice the skills in a supervised setting, and it names role plays with the instructor’s guidance. That is classroom practice on the dates you book. It is not a later file of your own cases reviewed for a set number of hours. The same page says only in-person class dates qualify for NBCC credit, and online offerings are not eligible. If your board wants NBCC, the December 7 to 8, 2026 online basics date does not do that job. The October 13 to 14, 2026 Littleton date is the in-person option on that list.

The Institute listing for the 22-hour Advanced Certificate says the course includes structured practice exercises, more than 50 clinical demonstrations, written materials, and recorded lectures. It does not name a live supervision hour. Self-paced is the point. Do not upgrade “exercises” into supervision because you wish it were. The same page lists Core Skills as a separate 5-hour course at $125, if you want a shorter start and not the certificate.

APT’s Essentials page says you receive APT accreditation Level 2 and can print a certificate after the online course and exam. Access to the course and resources lasts for the accreditation period of 3 years, renewable by an online refresher, and registration lasts indefinitely. A learner comment on that page calls the exercises optional. Useful. Not the same as a trainer watching your session.

Online CE Credits says the $457 program includes free admission to up to four 1-hour consultation groups “to troubleshoot your most difficult clinical cases.” Call that what they call it. Consultation. If you need to know how consultation differs from a mentor and from supervision, read what a mentor does for a therapist before you count those four hours as something else.

BRIEF’s Level 1 page says the teaching is mostly practice in pairs, threes, and groups, “directly relevant to the task of doing and supervising direct work with clients.” That is about the skill the exercises point at. It is not a line that says your cases are supervised for a named number of hours. The foundation levels page is where Level 1 is described as twelve hours. The certificate page is clearer about the bar: 8 days of training with BRIEF, then a written first-session description. If those 8 days are already done, you can submit without further courses or supervision.

Pick the hour you actually have

Maya is an LCSW in a group practice. Her CE year closes in November. She has one Thursday she can protect, and she wants to ask different questions on Tuesday, not collect another slide deck.

A 22-hour self-paced certificate and a 12-hour live Level 1 are both real. They do not answer the same week. If your deadline is a receipt before November, Denver’s October 13 to 14 basics class is on the calendar, in person, 13 CE hours, early registration $250 if you are outside the two-week regular window. If your deadline is “I can finish on Sunday nights,” the Institute 22-hour listing at $495 or APT’s 18-hour listing at $340.00 are the self-paced rows. Online CE Credits says about 16 to 17 self-paced hours for 15.25 CE, at $457.

Solution focused training on a provider page may mean coaching, not therapy. BRIEF’s certificate page says the course focuses primarily on therapy and coaching and can stretch to other arenas. Read the audience line. A coaching certificate does not become a therapy hour because the word solution is in the title.

Your board still decides what it accepts. None of these pages is your board chapter. Denver will work with you if your state wants formal CEUs and will provide information so you can seek credit. That is their offer. It is not a ruling.

When you want a workshop, not a certificate

Solution focused therapy workshops are the short rows. If a half day is the solution focused therapy training you can finish this month, book that and stop. Use a workshop when you want a taste, a refresh, or one skill in a day, and you are not trying to finish an 8-day certificate this quarter.

Denver’s therapist-training page lists Solution-Focused Basics Overview as a half day, 3.75 CE hours. Early registration is $75.00, regular (within two weeks of the class) is $100.00, and a group of four or more is $50.00. Upcoming dates on that page include November 20, 2026, online, 8:30 to 12:30. The page also still lists September 18, 2026. That date has passed. Use the live calendar, not a stale row.

The same page’s two-day basics class is the step up from that half day: 13 CE hours, practice in a supervised setting, early $250. If the half day leaves you wanting the six interventions in a room, that is the next booking, not a different institute.

Denver’s summer intensive page describes two 2027 weeks, one in Littleton and one online, with live discussion and time for supervised practice, kept to a maximum of 25. Each summer intensive day qualifies for 5 CEs. The page does not print a tuition figure in the copy read on September 25, 2026. Do not invent one. If a week of workshops is the path, open that page and read the fee before you hold the dates.

A workshop receipt and a certificate track are different next steps. BRIEF will not treat Level 1 alone as the certificate. The certificate page requires 8 days, and it had no dates and no price stored when read.

Write the next step before you pay

The right-hand column is useless if you close the laptop without a line you can act on Friday. Write it in the same sitting you do the solution focused therapy training comparison.

Copy the blank line if Maya’s week is not yours. Fill the brackets. Leave them blank and you will pay for a format you cannot attend.

Log that line on a professional development plan for therapists so the hour is tied to one try. A certificate in a folder does not change Tuesday. One question you will ask, named in advance, might.

After the course, the note has to show the question you tried and what the client did with it. Session-note features are where that record lives. The certificate is not the chart.

Download the one-page plan

The plan is yours: one focus, one try, one reading, a monthly line, and a CE column. Put the path you picked in the focus line. Put the next-step email in the try. Do not turn the hours into a score.

Email me the one-page plan

Get the printable professional development plan: one focus theme, one try, one reading, monthly check-in rows, and a CPD/CEU log column.

  • Five-line skeleton: focus theme, one try, one reading, monthly check-in, CPD/CEU log
  • Four monthly rows that ask whether you tried the move, not how you score
  • CPD/CEU log with date, title, provider, hours, and focus-tie column
  • Reminder that you set the goals; this is not a ranking or an owner file

Free. We'll email the PDF link right away and add you to the therapist toolkit, sent every two weeks. Unsubscribe any time.

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