Focused Brief Treatment and Adolescent Substance Abuse
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The article, "Solution Focused Brief Treatment with Adolescent Substance Abusers," written by Insoo Kim Berg and Dan Gallagher (??), examines the specific applications of the solution-based therapeutic approach to the population of adolescent substance abusers. In this article, Berg and Gallagher (??) presented a brief discussion of the underlying conceptual bases of the solution focused brief therapy: 1) Discovering positive patterns of behavior and encouraging clients to repeat them; 2) Generating expectations of change by envisioning a future without the problem; 3) Avoiding the repetition of interventions or therapeutic tasks that do not work for the clients; and 4) Celebrating the strengths and the successes of the clients, thus creating a nurturing and supportive therapeutic relationship (pp. 93-5). Furthermore, Berg and Gallagher (??) identified the unique challenges confronted by the therapists in dealing with the client population of adolescent substance abusers. The first concern in dealing with these clients is to determine whether the clients are "visitors" -- unwilling and uninteresting participants in the sessions, or "customers" -- serious clients who are willing to change their behavior. The determination of the state of mind of the clients can help the therapists decide which therapeutic tasks to implement. In instances when the adolescent abusers do not want to participate in treatment, therapists can shift their attention to the former's parents who
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dolescents who are going through the difficult period of transition from youth to adulthood, this perspective is particularly important for therapists to have a comprehensive grasp of the needs and interests of their clients.
Furthermore, Berg and Gallagher's (??) recognition of the importance to avoid repeating therapeutic tasks that do not work is also highly significant. Essentially, this aspect is a central component of the solution-based approach. In the same way that clients are encouraged to discover positive patterns of behavior that work for them instead of resorting to negative behavior, therapists should not impose intervention strategies on their clients, which have failed to yield positive results (pp. 94-5). Thus, therapists act as role models in their implementation of the solution-based approach.
Berg and Gallagher's (??) suggestion of accepting the client's goals even when they are unrelated to the substance abuse problem is also a critical issue (p. 97). Once again, it coheres with the conceptual basis of the solution-based treatment: rather than fixate on the problem, the therapist supports the client's effort to look at other aspects of their lives as potential motivators and solutions. Certainly, a t
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Approximate Word count = 1841
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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