Brief Strategic Family Therapy® Expanding in Europe

The city of Linkoping is located 177 miles (286 kilometers) southwest of Stockholm, Sweden.With 100,000 residents; this 724-year old city is known for its historic cathedral, university, high-technology industry, and SAAB plane factory.  As the municipal seat and the capital of Östergötland County, Linköping provides County social and family services such as education and job placement. Known as the community where “ideas become reality”, in November 2010, Linköping Kommun (community) officials selected and began implementing the Brief Strategic Family Therapy® (BSFT™) program, developed in 1972 at the Center for Family Studies, University of Miami.

BSFT™ Program at Crosswinds Youth Services Awarded Prestigious SAMHSA Award

For over 30 years, Crosswinds Youth Services (Cocoa, FL) has been dedicated to helping vulnerable youth and their families. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has recently selected 28 organizations across the USA to receive their 2010 Science and Service Awards. These awards recognize exemplary implementation of evidence-based interventions that have been shown to prevent and/or treat mental illnesses and substance abuse. Crosswinds was one of six agencies nationwide bestowed the award for “treatment of substance abuse and recovery support services,” based on their implementation of the Brief Strategic Family Therapy® (BSFT™) model.

BSFT™ Program Developer to Present at Blueprints Conference

Join BSFT™ Program Developer José Szapocznik, Ph.D. April 7-9, 2010 in the historic city of San Antonio, Texas for the third annual Blueprints Conference. Dr. Szapocznik will be presenting Thursday morning, April 8, 2010 and hosting the “Meet the Developer” hospitality suite Wednesday evening, April 7 at the Marriott Rivercenter hotel on the San Antonio River Walk. Blueprints attendees are invited to...

Reclaiming the Child, Reconnecting the Family

For months on end, Roberto’s bedroom was a place of refuge. In his family’s small apartment, his room was where he could watch TV, talk on the phone with his girlfriend, and send text messages without risking an argument with his dad. In this safe haven, father and son would not cross paths. To make matters worse, the once close relationship with his mother...

BSFT™ Program Agency Recognizes Excellence

Since the 1970s, community agency Crosswinds Youth Services (Cocoa, FL) has been creating opportunities for young people to succeed. Crosswinds is part of Florida’s “Redirection Program,” launched in 2004 by its Department of Juvenile Justice to “redirect” troubled youth from residential placements to more effective, family-focused, evidence-based treatment.  The BSFT™ Program has been implemented at Crosswinds since November, 2007.

Complimentary Consultation

Brief Strategic Family Therapy® Institute has provided BSFT™ Program training, supervision, consultation and licensure to community agencies in over 40 states and other countries ranging from Australia to Sweden. Our research program began in 1972. If you are a decision-making legislator, judicial officer, clinical director or foundation executive, consider the cost effectiveness of the BSFT™ Program’s well-designed and tested family program.

BSFT™ Program Sponsors Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline® Forum, 10/02/09

Over 200 people assembled at the University of Miami’s Medical Campus on October 2 to examine the current state of juvenile justice in Miami-Dade County (Florida). Organized by the Circuit 11 Juvenile Justice Board in collaboration with The Children’s Trust and the Brief Strategic Family Therapy® Institute (BSFT™), the purpose of the event was to develop a juvenile justice strategic plan and legislative agenda for dismantling the Cradle-To-Prison Pipeline® in the community.

BSFT™ Program Conference in Sweden, 09/10/09 - 09/11/09

The “Conference to Introduce Brief Strategic Family Therapy®” was held September 10-11, 2009 at the Karolinska Institutet, Solna Campus, in Stockholm, Sweden. The conference disseminated knowledge about the method in Sweden, which is recognized as an effective program of several academic and national (USA) organizations to reduce or stop drug abuse and related behavior problems in adolescents. Attendees included therapists and administrators from several European nations.

The Brief Strategic Family Therapy® Institute is currently supervising a team of six therapists in the BSFT™ Program Model who are part of the Maria Youth (Ungdom) Center In Stockholm, Sweden – a governmental organization that provides drug treatment to adolescents and their families. The team started their training in late November of 2007 and is currently participating in supervision to sustain the BSFT™ Program in their agency.

Senior BSFT™ Program Trainer, Mónica Zárate, and the six therapists meet weekly for supervision using videoconferencing and regularly review translated videotaped family sessions. The team, which participated alongside University of Miami BSFT™ Program Trainers at the BSFT™ Program Conference, has demonstrated a tremendous commitment to implementing the BSFT™ Program in their agency.

NREPP Reviews the BSFT™ Program, 12/01/08

The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP), a service of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has reviewed several BSFT™ Program studies and outcomes. NREPP analyzed engagement in therapy, conduct problems, socialized aggression (delinquency in the company of peers), substance use and family functioning.