Brief solutions focussed therapy clinic

What is brief solution focussed therapy clinic?

The brief solution focussed therapy clinic (BSFT) is a clinic we offer at child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) for young people of all ages. This clinic helps children, young people and their families build on the strengths they already have to help them with the difficulties they are facing.

We know that when families come to CAMHS they have been through very stressful experiences and have spent a lot of time talking about these difficulties. We have learnt that people will still have a lot of strengths and resources within themselves and their families. Finding out about these and building on them or using them can help make things better.

Our research and experience has shown that for families coming to CAMHS it is not just the individual that is affected but those around them and that they also hold many of the potential solutions. For this reason we aim to see the young person with their family and people who are important to them.

What should we expect?

In your first appointment, we will give you the chance to ask any questions and think about what you would like to achieve in therapy. We will set therapeutic goals together and check how you are doing at the start of the work and as we go along to make sure what we are doing is helpful.

We will offer up to 6 sessions for you as a family. These are normally once every 2 weeks.

We are able to have more than 1 therapist in the room, and we take the issues that you come with very seriously and we have found having a couple of therapists or more helps families to progress towards their goals quicker.

We will listen in to your conversations and feed back the good things we have seen and heard which might have been missed.

This might seem a bit weird to begin with, but families have said that they really like this.

What have other families said?

Other families have said that it helped them get back on track, and that sometimes you can forget the strengths that you have got, and the things that are going good already.

It can help you pick up on your child’s interests, and play as well as chatting. Each person gets their turn to talk and have space to discuss their issues.