SHORT-TERM SOLUTION-ORIENTED GROUPS FOR PARENTS AND AT-RISK ADOLESCENTS

Many clinicians working in social service, mental health, addictions, and school settings today are faced with heavy caseloads, pressures to shorten their clients’ lengths of stay in treatment, and adopt a time-sensitive and efficient therapy approach. Managed care and other third party payer groups that manage the mental health and substance abuse benefits of the clients like to contract with and send referrals to therapists who utilize goal-focused, short-term, and strengths-based therapy approaches.

One of the biggest challenges for therapists who are referred managed care clients is how to resolve such serious adolescent behavioral difficulties as self-injury, bulimia, heavy substance abuse, and explosive and violent behaviors in 6-8 sessions.  Depending on the constraints of the setting therapists work in, they may experience grave difficulty engaging one or both parents for family therapy or do not have the luxury of working directly with them because of their work schedule or the nature of their practice settings. In some cases the parents are the customers for therapy and desperately want help with managing their difficult adolescents’ behaviors but their kids refuse to participate in individual or family therapy. However, all is not lost with both of these treatment dilemmas.

In this “hands-on” highly practical workshop, participants will learn how to run two short-term, skill-building solution-oriented groups that are not only managed care-friendly but can be implemented in any practice setting. The Solution-Oriented parenting Group empowers parents to be the agents of change for their kids and families by teaching them effective solution-generating tools and strategies. The Stress-Busters’ Leadership Group is not only a secondary prevention intervention for at-risk self-destructive adolescents but it empowers them to change key family relationships and become leaders in their schools and communities. Workshop participants will have an opportunity to practice some of the groups’ major tools and strategies and leave with blueprints for conducting both of these groups in their practice settings.