Possibility Therapy, originated by the psychotherapist Bill O’Hanlon in the 1990s, is a present- to future-oriented approach to change in counseling and therapy. It stands on two principles: (1) acknowledgment and (2) possibility.

The premise of Possibility Therapy is that people get stuck at some point in their lives in one or more areas: cognitively, emotionally, perceptually, neurologically, physiologically, behaviorally, or relationally. Those stuck places create suffering for the person and others around them. Thus, the goal of Possibility Therapy is to get people unstuck as quickly as possible and to relieve their suffering. It is light on theory and heavy on method.

Historical Context

Although the approach was developed in the 1990s, many of its ideas are rooted in theories that came before it. For instance, its ...

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