Community-based mental health services are increasingly challenged by waiting lists for individual counseling. A strengths-based, brief solution-focused counseling (BSFC) model was used to increase the number of clients served while maintaining high-quality services. Clients who participated in BSFC experienced both shorter wait times than did…

A counselor working with an individual who is trying to sort out a personal problem might find it helpful to draw pictures, if only doodles, to help the client clarify the situation. (Author/HMV)

Evaluated couples (N=27) randomly assigned to conjoint or concurrent therapy to compare treatment effectiveness with regard to intrapersonal and interpersonal problems. Results showed no differences between the two treatments on any of the outcome measures. (LLL)

A study examining factors that contribute to effective team functioning in inpatient psychiatric facilities showed that most respondents, who were all members of such teams, agreed that teamwork helped to improve treatment plans for individual clients. Roles social workers take as team members are examined and important issues about team…

Queried 69 social workers about termination reactions in most recently terminated individual cases. Clients' strongest reactions were positive affect, evaluation of success, evaluation of therapeutic experience, and positive flight. Least strong client reactions were nihilistic flight, regression, denial, recapitulation, and expression of need for…

Encounters, defined as contacts between a social worker and client that have not been regularly scheduled, represent an alternative to the classic casework method. Presents a consumer-oriented strategy based on clinical experience in a public community mental health center in a large urban area. (Author)

Assessed therapeutic processes used by peer and professional counselors during brief, problem-focused individual intervention program with 51 daughters and daughters-in-law who were caring for frail elder. Findings indicated that professionals were significantly warmer and friendlier, engaged in greater exploration, and gave more and different…

Reviews current research on treatment of borderline clients with medication, individual counseling, and family interventions. Notes that recent studies indicate that borderline personality is heterogeneous condition in which different underlying disorders (affective, schizotypal, and neurological) may be present. Reviews effectiveness of various…

Telephone play can be instituted only with understanding of the child's changing levels of awareness, emotional flexibility, and insight. The capacity to facilitate communication makes telephones valuable therapeutic tools, but the child's ability and willingness to play allows the telephone to become a means of expression. (Author)

Describes the use of solution-focused interviewing as a way to engage mandated clients. A conversation with a court-ordered client is presented and analyzed to demonstrate how practitioners can begin co-construction of cooperation with mandated clients. Ethical implications of this noncoercive, nonconfrontational approach are addressed, along with…

If social workers are to serve Native Americans effectively, they must understand their distinctive characteristics, cultural norms and value systems. The authors discuss and describe the latter and suggest that social workers and family counselors vary their techniques as well as approach according to the needs of Native American culture. (SE)

Discusses 100-year-old debate about the primary function of the social work profession: to seek social reform or to provide individual treatment. Uses debate format to argue that these need not be mutually exclusive and divisive, and that they are increasingly evident in social work education and practice. (Author/JDM)