ABSTRACT
Central to the philosophy of Social Behaviour and Network Therapy is the notion that to give the best chance of a good outcome, a person with a serious drinking problem needs to enlist the support of one or more people who will help the person to abstain or signi®cantly reduce drinking and to maintain this new drinking level. This group of signi®cant others can be regarded as a `social network for change'. Identifying and enlisting the focal person's social network and setting the scene for the remainder of the intervention is the central focus of the Phase 1 of treatment and the work to be conducted during the ®rst meeting.
