Solution-Focused Brief Therapy With Families, Essay Example

I would begin by asking the young man Tommy and his parents to tell me their stories. I would need to bring to this a beginner’s mind: I do not know their stories, so I must ask them how they experience these stories. What is Tommy’s experience of his parent’s divorce, the split custody, and his rebellion? What are his parents’ respective experiences? By listening, echoing the key words, and reframing things, I would help them to hopefully start understanding their problems as bounded and partial, not total. The idea is to help them to overcome their problems, and for that they need to see that there are ways of looking at the problems that will make them seem less consuming and powerful. I would also try to help them focus on the positive: Tommy, for example, is not just a young man who is sometimes rebellious, he is also a young man who, say, is eager to learn and discover new things, and wants a better relationship with both of his parents (Backhaus, 2011, pp. 296-297; Gehart, 2014, pp. 331-334).

After identifying the relevant issues, I could then use a miracle question, such as ‘Tommy, what would it look like if the problems with your parents’ rules, your living situation, and your home were all resolved?’ For an exception question: ‘Tommy, what are some times when you haven’t had these issues with your parents/school/etc quite as much?’ For a scaling question, I might say ‘Tommy, I want you to tell me how you’re feeling about life, on a 1-to-10 point scale.’ By repeating the procedure with his parents, I would hopefully help them to be more understanding of each other. Then we could focus on creating solutions that would help Tommy to improve his behavior, and his parents to give him the support he needs (Backhaus, 2011, pp. 295-297; Gehart, 2014, pp. 339-342). None of these strike me as particularly difficult techniques; I think they would be enormously successful in this case. Solution-focused therapy might be criticized for its pragmatism and the fact that it is very present- and future-oriented, but I don’t think this is a very sound criticism of it. All in all I find it very practical.

I would want Lisa and both Laura and Tom to attend the majority of the sessions—but I would also want some sessions with Lisa alone. On the one hand, Lisa would probably feel more comfortable saying certain things—i.e. how she really feels about particular aspects of home life, her concerns about her body image, etc.—without her parents present. On the other hand, it is patently obvious that both parents are integrally connected to the issues at hand here. Laura has issues with Lisa’s behavior, but Tom feels that Lisa is simply going through regular adolescent issues. It would be important to get their input as well, and to have them on hand so that Lisa can express herself to them in therapy. The role of the counselor would be as facilitator, helping Lisa, Laura and perhaps Tom to reframe problems and focus on the positive (Backhaus, 2011, pp. 296-297; Gehart, 2014, pp. 331-334).

The assessment process would fundamentally consist of first, seeking to draw Lisa out with regards to her various concerns and issues. Her teacher says she appears withdrawn, her mother thinks she is defiant, and Lisa has body image issues and recently quit the basketball team. I would seek to elicit Lisa’s feelings about all of this. From there, I could proceed with questions to help her articulate what it would look like for these problems to be resolved. I would use the miracle question, scaling question and exception question approach for solution-oriented therapy. The target would certainly be both Lisa’s negative attitudes about herself, and any she may have about her parents, as well as any behaviors of her parents and the overall family dynamic that may be contributing to the problems she is having. This is certainly a strengths-based model, since it is designed to help the clients use their strengths to overcome the problems they may be having by using their strengths. The theory of change in this case is that with better perspective and an understanding of what they want and how to get it, clients can change and can experience a better future (Backhaus, 2011, pp. 296-297; Gehart, 2014, pp. 331-335).

References

Backhaus, K. (2011). Solution-focused brief therapy with families. In L. Metcalf (Ed.), Marriage and family therapy: A practice-oriented approach (pp. 287-312). New York: Springer.

Gehart, D. (2014). Mastering competencies in family therapy: A practical approach to theory and clinical case documentation (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.