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 are willing to change their behavior to help their children, thus making them "customers" (pp. 95-6)
The second issue revolves around the identification of the treatment goals that are used as incentives to encourage clients to become customers in the therapeutic process. According to Berg and Gallagher (??), the clients' goals should be acknowledged regardless of their relationship to the drug behavior because they serve as a motivator for the client to ...