Do One Thing Different: Ten Simple Ways to Change Your Life

by William Hudson O'Hanlon

Problem-oriented and explanation-based theories focus on what is wrong with a person or what went wrong in the past. Solution-oriented therapy highlights what is right with the person, what has worked or been helpful in the past, and what the person can do right now to change things.

Frankl went on to apply this technique, which he called paradoxical intention, successfully to several other problems, mostly involving insomnia and impotence. He would instruct people who were trying to go to sleep to try to stay awake instead. Off to sleep they would go.