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Brief Strategic Family Therapy

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Name of Model

Brief Strategic Family Therapy

Introduction

The Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) model is an evidence-based intervention used with families of adolescents who are engaging in problematic behaviors (Horigian et al. 2016). It is usually delivered weekly for 12–16 sessions, with each session lasting about 1–1¼ h. It most often occurs at the client’s home, but can also occur at other places that are convenient for the family, including schools or community clinics. The intervention is guided by a clinical manual that outlines the model’s theory and techniques (Szapocznik et al. 2003). As described below, the current BSFT intervention emerged from a rich history of treatment development that included theoretical principles, clinical experience and experimentation, empirical treatment research, and implementation science. It should be noted that in the BSFT model, “family” is defined as all individuals who “function” in the role of family members, and “parents” are...

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References

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded in part by grants UL1TR000460 and U10DA013720 to José Szapocznik. José Szapocznik is the developer of this method. The University and José Szapocznik have the potential for financial benefit from future commercialization of this method.

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Correspondence to José Szapocznik .

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Anderson, A.R., Denny, S.K., Muir, J.A., Szapocznik, J. (2019). Brief Strategic Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_159

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