Within integrative practice there are several ways a therapist or any mental health professional could address concerns their client or community could be facing within the therapeutic realm. This writer’s intent of this learning brief is bring awareness to the reported challenges that African American (A/A) men face throughout their daily lives by presenting research on social support, traumatic events, and depressive symptoms among this population. With that, this writer will contrast two different modalities (Solution-Focused Therapy and Bio-Psycho-Social Model) that could assist in their therapeutic process in order to successfully decrease these disabling symptoms and potentially increase positive lifelong functioning. Looking at depression,
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First, SFT is a strength based approach, focusing on the resources people possess and how they can be applied to the change process (Corcoran & Pillai, 2009). The model is focused on the idea that all people have individual strengths regardless of the present circumstances their being challenged with. Ultimately, the individual has the solutions to the problem but needs guidance in formulating and planning to reshape their thinking from problem focus to solution focus. The assessment process is geared towards helping people visualize how they would like their lives to be, identifying times at which the solution had already been implemented, and figuring out what is needed to apply the solution to other various challenges as well (de Shazer, 1994). This being a strength based approach, SFT encourages clients to find the solutions that fit their own value systems, thought processes, and world view to have a better outcome with relief from symptoms (de Jong & Berg, …show more content…
Several interrelated topics should be addressed when conceptualizing the social dimensions of a person’s life, such as family or household, culture, social supports, social environmental stressors, and tools to assess the social context (Sands & Gellis, 2012). A practitioner is interested in determining the quality of the relationships in the household and how they relate and affect the client. (Sands & Gellis, 2012) Ethnic and religious cultures should be included in determining value systems, client’s identity, and family
First, SFT is a strength based approach, focusing on the resources people possess and how they can be applied to the change process (Corcoran & Pillai, 2009). The model is focused on the idea that all people have individual strengths regardless of the present circumstances their being challenged with. Ultimately, the individual has the solutions to the problem but needs guidance in formulating and planning to reshape their thinking from problem focus to solution focus. The assessment process is geared towards helping people visualize how they would like their lives to be, identifying times at which the solution had already been implemented, and figuring out what is needed to apply the solution to other various challenges as well (de Shazer, 1994). This being a strength based approach, SFT encourages clients to find the solutions that fit their own value systems, thought processes, and world view to have a better outcome with relief from symptoms (de Jong & Berg, …show more content…
Several interrelated topics should be addressed when conceptualizing the social dimensions of a person’s life, such as family or household, culture, social supports, social environmental stressors, and tools to assess the social context (Sands & Gellis, 2012). A practitioner is interested in determining the quality of the relationships in the household and how they relate and affect the client. (Sands & Gellis, 2012) Ethnic and religious cultures should be included in determining value systems, client’s identity, and family