Introduction

Behavior problems of children and adolescents constitute the majority of referrals for psychotherapy of those age groups. Although often described as separate approaches to conceptualizing and intervening in family problems, the Structural and Strategic views share extensive conceptual bases and provide a complimentary set of approaches and techniques that can be quite effective with behavior problems. The approaches incorporate these in a hybrid fashion that utilizes Structural techniques for insession change and Strategic techniques for out-of-session change. In addition to sharing the Structural-Strategic base, the interventions conceptualize behavior problems as developing and being maintained by multiple systemic level influence. The tenets of Structural-Strategic approaches are used to intervene creatively, as needed, at several levels of systemic junctures. The concern is not with identifying where the problem lies, but rather with determining where intervention is necessary, most effective, and most efficient.