Pathways To Change: Brief Therapy Solutions With Difficult Adolescents

Pathways to Change presents a highly pragmatic and innovative Solution-Oriented Brief Family Therapy approach for challenging adolescent cases. Therapy is collaborative and capitalizes on the strengths and resources of family members, the adolescent's peers, and involved helping professionals from larger systmes to rapidly resolve the client's presenting problems. Selekman's Solution-Oriented Brief Family Therapy model goes beyond other brief therapy approaches in that it integrates progressive therapeutic ideas from Steve deShazer, Michael White, Tom Andersen, and the Galveston group. The book also discusses therapeutic improvisation and the use of humor in brief therapy. Packed with case examples and interview transcripts, the book offers many practical "how-to" features. Finally Selekman presents a blueprint for conducting his Solution-Oriented Parenting Group as an alternative to regular family therapy or when therapists are unable to engage the adolescents in treatment. This book will be invaluable to mental health and addiction professionals working with adolescents and their families.

Table of Contents:
Preface An Evolving Brief Therapy Model for Difficult Adolescents. Guiding Assumptions with an Eyes on Solution. The First Interview: Co-Creating a Context for Change. Effective Strategies for Engaging Difficult Adolescents. Organizing a Social Ecology: Collaborating with Helpers from Larger Systems. Keeping Change Rippling On: Prescription for Second and Subsequent Sessions. The Solution-Oriented Parenting Group. Epilogue. References. Index.

About the Author :
Matthew D. Selekman, MSW, has a family therapy training practice in Evanston, IL. An Approved Supervisor for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, he has presented workshops on Solution-Focused Therapy with children and adolescents extensively throughout North America and Europe. He is the author of Pathways to Change: Brief Therapy Solutions with Difficult Adolescents and the coeditor of Family Therapy Approaches with Adolescent Substance Abusers, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Systemic Therapies.


Review :
"Selekman presents a wealth of innovative clinical strategies that will be valuable to anyone working with adolescents, no matter how sophisticated. The solution-oriented brief therapy approach is presented clearly with ample case material. What makes this book unique, however, is its integration of other important new ideas, most notably the work of Michael White, Tom Andersen, and the Galveston team. It is hard to imagine how any reader can fail to be stimulated by Selekman's optimistic therapeutic stance and his fresh writing style." --Thomas C. Todd, PhD

"With a playful tone on a serious subject PATHWAYS integrates, expands, and tailors solution focused and brief therapy approaches to difficult adolescents and their families. Selekman anoints the therapist an 'intergenerational negotiator, ' focuses on the strengths and resources of the adolescent and their family, and challenges therapists to tap their creativity, spontaneity, and humor. Drawing from his own experiences, he offers priceless guiding assumptions and demonstrates their proved effectiveness through a variety of case examples. Selekman makes working with adolescents fun." --Harlene Anderson, Ph.D., Houston Galveston Institute

"Working well with adolescents and their families is a challenging craft. His book, PATHWAYS TO CHANGE, reveals that Matthew Selekman is a master craftsman. His creative zest and deep commitment to his clients are evident on each page. Selekman demonstrates that solution oriented therapy is not magic, but a useful tool that can be utilized by the general practitioner. PATHWAYS TO CHANGE is an extremely effective how-to manual that provides clear and useful strategies for applying brief therapy techniques to the difficult work of treating adolescents. This book is a gift. I hope you will read it. But more importantly, I hope you will use it." --David C. Treadway, Ph.D.

"Nothing can age a therapist (or a parent) quicker than wrestling with difficult adolescents. This book offers a way to keep at least some of your hair from turning gray the next time Joe and Jane Kool are unwillingly dragged into your office for therapy they do not want, do not think will help them, and are prepared to resist to the best of their ability.

"A high energy and often humorous book that starts from a familiar base--the positive upbeat Solution Focused model. Selekman then uses the full range of Brief Therapy tactics and techniques to get through to Joe and Jane and their families. In Selekman's approach, there is room for externalizing symptoms, consideration of larger systems issues, therapeutic teams, habit pattern change, ritual, and more." --Donald E. Efron, M.S.W.