Brief Focal Family Therapy When the Child is the Referred Patient

Over the past two decades there has been considerable interest in finding ways to shorten psychotherapeutic work, and generally increase the efficiency of psychiatric professionals via brief intervention methods (Malan, 1963: Sifneos, 1967; Parad and Parad, 1968; Small, 1971). This trend has only relatively recently become evident in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry, coincident with the development of theories and techniques which recognize the parents, extended family, and social network both as targets for change and agents of change (Skynner, 1969; Rosenthal and Levine, 1970; Argles and Mackenzie, 1970; Leventhal and Weinberger, 1975; Minuchin et al., 1975).