SOME FUNDAMENTALS OF THERAPEUTIC WORK WITH FAMILIESIN THE LIGHT OF THE ASSUMPTIONS OF SOLUTION-FOCUSED THERAPY

Abstract

The author, adressing one of the most popular therapeutic methods nowadays: short-term solu-tion-focused therapy (TSR; Brief Solution Focused Therapy, BSFT), shares her experience of appli-cation of the key rules of BSFT in the work of the "Jest Czas" Children and Youth Support Centre in Płock in the scope of shaping dialogue skills in the family and therapist's communication with its members, particularly in the context of cooperation with the school. She emphasises that a distinc-tive feature of BSFT is that the therapist does not analyse the reported problem in the first place, does not focus on the diagnosis and the patient's past, does not want to be just a guidance-giving expert, but works mainly on the "client's resources" (predispositions, skills, meaningful feelings, proper behaviours) that have proven themselves to function in the client's life. She further outlines five rules of BSFT therapeutic work, completed and reinterpreted in the centre she leads. The author underlines that in complementing these rules, the Płock centre also uses a scenario devel-oped by Maurice Berger, a French specialist in a child and family psychology, creator of the model of "therapeutic interviews with the family" (entretiens thérapeutiques avec la famille) and emphasis-es harmonising the philosophical foundation of BSFT (constructivism, postmodernism, narra-tivism) with the stream of Christian personalism.