Brief Strategic Family Therapy

Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) is designed to (1) prevent, reduce, and/or treat adolescent behavior problems such as drug use, conduct problems, delinquency, sexually risky behavior, aggressive/violent behavior, and association with antisocial peers, (2) improve prosocial behaviors such as school attendance and performance, and (3) improve family functioning, including effective parental leadership and management, positive parenting, and parental involvement with the child and his or her peers and school. BSFT is typically delivered in 12-16 family sessions but may be delivered in as few as 8 or as many as 24 sessions, depending on the severity of the communication and management problems within the family. Sessions are conducted at locations that are convenient to the family, including the family's home in some cases. Hispanic families have been the principal recipients of BSFT, but African American families have also participated in the intervention.