Solution-Focused Narrative Therapy with an Adolescent

In this course, Diana Chung works with Jessica, a 16-year-old girl who was born in Mexico and immigrated with her mother to the U.S. at 1 year of age. Jessica is bilingual and her family subscribes to traditional values such as family unity, collectivism, and respect towards adults. Jessica is often left in charge of caring for younger siblings while her mother and stepfather work long hours to provide for the 4 children in the blended family. She feels overwhelmed with the tasks and pressures asked of her. Her grades have been decreasing in the past semester, as conflict in the home has increased. Jessica has been skipping school and has been missing out on class time. Her mother is concerned about her irritability and short patience with family members, isolation from the family, anger outbursts with siblings and adults, and has a concern about the client smoking marijuana when with friends, though the client denies any substance use. Jessica was referred for therapy by the school counsellor for spotty attendance, a drop in grades, and a comment made in passing that sometimes she “is depressed”. Diana uses a Narrative and Solution-Focused orientation and applies different skills to create space within the problem-saturated story to allow room for new possibilities. She uses de Shazer's “Miracle Question” and variations of this question for assessment and to discuss goals. Diana also asks questions to assess for the “preferred self” ? a technique used to allow for less blaming and more space to talk about alternative stories. Diana emphasises the present and future, with clients' local knowledge at the forefront. She searches for the clients' strengths, exceptions to the problem, and self-derived solutions to create space for new realities, and new ways of talking about the client's life.