Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT)

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Category	Type	Target Age Group	Setting	Outcomes	Source of Rating
Promising Programs	Antisocial Behavior	Elementary School High School Middle School	Community In-Home	Significant reductions in Conduct Disorder and Socialized Aggression	Close Blueprints for Violence Prevention (Blueprints) The Blueprints for Violence Prevention list has been developed by a research team headed by Delbert Elliott, Ph.D. at the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado. For Blueprints to certify a brand name program as “model,” the program must demonstrate its effects on problem behaviors with a rigorous experimental design, show that its effects persist after youth leave the program and be successfully replicated at least once. In order for a brand name program to be certified as “promising,” the program must demonstrate effects using a rigorous experimental design. The Blueprints Web site (www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints/) lists 11 “model” programs and 19 “promising” programs. Selection Criteria: Lasting positive effects in well designed evaluations & emphasis on replication. Applicability:  Excellent for crime, violence, delinquency & substance abuse. Reliability:  Excellent Currency:  Up to Date Advantages:  Easy to use. Plentiful peer and tech support. Predictability of outcomes. Limitations:  Covers only a small number of brand name programs. Blueprints

Description:

Brief Strategic Family Therapy® (BSFT™) is an effective, problem focused, and practical approach to the elimination of substance abuse risk factors. It successfully reduces problem behaviors in children and adolescents six to 17 years old and strengthens their families. BSFT™ provides families with tools to decrease individual and family risk factors through focused interventions that improve problematic family relations and skill-building strategies that strengthen families. It targets:

• Conduct problems
• Associations with antisocial peers
• Early substance use
• Problematic family relations

The program fosters parental leadership, appropriate parental involvement, mutual support among parenting figures, family communication, problem solving, clear rules and consequences, nurturing, and shared responsibility for family problems. In addition, the program provides specialized outreach strategies to bring families into therapy.

BSFT is a short-term intervention with an emphasis on modifying maladaptive patterns of interactions. Typical sessions last from 60 to 90 minutes, with 12-15 sessions over three months. Therapy is based upon the assumption that each family has unique characteristics that emerge when family members interact, and that this family "system" influences all members of the family, thus the family is viewed as a whole organism. The repetitive interactions, or ways in which family members interact and behave with regard to one another can be either successful or unsuccessful. BSFT targets these interaction patterns that are directly related to the youth's behavior problems and establishes a practical plan to help the family develop more effective patterns of interaction.

The three primary components of the intervention are:

• Joining: Understanding resistance and engaging the family in therapy;
• Diagnosis: Identifying the interaction patterns that encourage problematic youth behavior; and
• Restructuring: Developing a specific plan to help change maladaptive family interaction patterns by working in the present, reframing, and working with boundaries and alliances.

Target Population

BSFT™ helps children and adolescents six to 17 years old who exhibit rebelliousness, truancy, delinquency, early substance use, and association with problem peers. BSFT™ also benefits families that are affected by poor behavior management, parental discord, anger, blaming interactions, and other problematic relations. This program was tested and proven in Hispanic families and adapted and tested with African-American and white families.

 

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References and/or Published Evaluations

BSFT adolescents showed significant reductions in Conduct Disorder and Socialized Aggression from pre- to post-treatment, while group therapy adolescents showed no significant changes. There were also clinically significant changes in Conduct Disorder and Socialized Aggression favoring the treatment group over the control group.

References

Robbins, M.S., & Szapocznik, J. (2000, April). Brief Strategic Family Therapy. (NCJ 179825). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Szapocznik, J., & Williams, R.A. (2000, June). Brief Strategic Family Therapy: Twenty-Five Years of Interplay Among Theory, Research and Practice in Adolescent Behavior Problems and Drug Abuse. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 3(2), 117-134.

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Additional Information

Provided by www.bfst.org September 2010

• Has this program been replicated at other sites? If so, how many and where are they?
  The BSFT™ Institute has trained and consulted sites in over 40 states as well as sites outside the United States.
  

• Is there a formal curriculum or program guidelines in place? What is the approximate cost for these materials?What kind of training and technical assistance is available for this program?
  Training and Technical Assistance is available through the Brief Strategic Family Therapy® Institute. The Institute provides a broad range of training programs in Miami or will train onsite at agencies around the country and world. Training is tailored to agency needs and populations and offered in English and Spanish.
  
  BSFT™ Workshops are only part of the ongoing training commitment that BSFT™ Institute makes to the agencies, clinics and therapists that it trains. In training therapists to competency, workshops then ongoing supervision and review and adherence ratings are required to gain BSFT™ site licensing. Prior to launching the workshops, a 1-day Preparatory Consultation is carried out on site, to evaluate and prepare the site for integrating BSFT™ into their organization and current working methods.
  
  If conditions are met, the Preparatory Consultation is followed by three three-day workshops (nine days total) including interactive lectures, videotape demonstrations and clinical case consultations, plus weekly group review/ audio-visual supervision/ feedback of BSFT™ family therapy sessions submitted by trainees.
  
  NOTE: Workshops consist of:
  
  
  • Interactive Lectures
    
  • Case Presentations (videos)
    
  • Live family sessions
    
  
  BSFT™ training curriculum is comprehensively manualized. The proprietary manual is available to organizations who agree and commit to training, supervision and licensure.
  

• Once the program has been implemented, can an organization obtain assistance with fidelity monitoring or quality assurance? BSFT™ measures fidelity by rating recorded sessions and has a fully developed program to sustain fidelity. Adherence to BSFT™ is monitored through:
  
  
  • Weekly supervision using DVDs of family sessions
    
  • Rating of competence by a panel of BSFT™ experts
    
  • Training of onsite BSFT™ supervisors
    
  • Licensing of providers who follow BSFT™ quality assurance procedures for sustainability and fidelity
    
  
  The following steps are involved in training to competency, program sustainability and licensure:
  
  • Training To Competence - Workshops PLUS Supervision: Three 3-day workshops including interactive lectures, DVD demonstrations, clinical case consultation plus weekly group review / phone supervision / feedback of DVDs of BSFT™ family therapy sessions submitted by trainees. A team of 4 trainees will participate in the supervision process working towards achievement of competency. Group supervision sessions begin after workshop II, last for 2 hours per week and occur for up to 24 weeks over a period of 6 months.
    
    
  • BSFT™ Competence:
    
    • Occurs when a therapist has successfully demonstrated a level of competence in the principles of BSFT™ as determined by an evaluation of his/her work by the BSFT™ Competency Panel.
      
    • Is NOT guaranteed as part of the training curriculum.
      
    • Can only occur as a result of supervision (of a therapist) by an approved BSFT™ Trainer.
      
    
    
  • Training an On-Site Supervisor: A BSFT™ On-Site Supervisor will be selected and trained to ensure quality and adherence to the model on-site.
    
    
  • Continuing Supervision: Once therapists achieve competence, weekly supervision will be provided by the BSFT™ On-Site Supervisor and monthly consultation by a BSFT™ Trainer.
    
    
  • Adherence Ratings: Therapists and/or agencies submit DVDs of their work for Adherence Ratings to the BSFT™ Institute.
    
    
  • Site Licensing: If it meets all licensing criteria, an agency may be licensed by the University as BSFT™ Provider
    

• Can an organization obtain assistance with data collection or measurement of outcomes?
  At www.bfst.org, users can find information on what kind of evaluations have been conducted previously on BSFT™, along with a list of typical outcomes. BSFT™ Institute staff are available to provide assistance with how to set-up and conduct an evaluation.

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