Solution‐Focused Brief Therapy: Its Effective Use in Agency Settings

Abstract

T. Pichot and Y. M. Dolan. (2003). Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Its Effective Use in Agency Settings. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press. 244 pp. Hardcover ISBN 0-7890-1553-1 6: $49.95; Paperback ISBN 0-7890-1554-4: $32.95. book provides a practical guide to interventions and basic philosophy of solution-focused therapy as applied primarily to group work with involuntary court-mandated clients in substance abuse treatment programs. The authors discuss the challenges posed by reluctant clients, daunting diagnoses, family distress, critical legal problems, time pressures for results, relapse risks, and therapist exhaustion in agency settings. The central argument is that solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) is an effective way to engage the creativity of clients in finding incremental steps toward establishing a context in which the problem is less disabling. It also energizes therapists and awakens their curiosity about each client's discovery of a meaningful route to personal change. The chapter about group work with adolescents is provocatively titled, This Is Stupid, I Don't Need This, and I Don't Want To be Here. The authors' premise is that although adolescent problems often are specific to their age as they relate to family, peers, and school, these clients' discoveries of solutions are unique to the individual. They argue that the SFBT approach is particularly suited to this population because their developmental stage makes adolescents ready to jettison external limits. Youth are willing to explore relationship questions and think about who they are and what type of future they desire to create. Counselors find that setting limits gently and maintaining a solution-focused orientation in group work ensures adolescents a safe space where the goals selected by group members can be addressed. Likewise, when working with family members, the SFBT focus ensures that parents and children notice what behaviors result in positive responses from each other. The same approach applies when they include children of all ages in their parents' treatment for substance abuse. Given that treatment referrals come from social services, probation departments, and governing agencies, the authors argue that these professionals also should be viewed as clients and their goals incorporated into interventions. The therapist can use the SFBT approach to get the referring professional to provide clear, evidence-based descriptions of behavior that the client needs to exhibit. The therapist asks the external unit to assess the client's progress and define a position on a scale of progress so it can be measured. …