Solution-Focused Cognitive and Systemic Therapy: The Bruges Model

224 Pages·2016·1.752 MB·English

by  Luc Isebaert

Solution-Focused Cognitive and
Systemic Therapy
Solution-Focused Cognitive and Systemic Therapy: The Bruges Model is the first book in
English to lay out the Bruges Model, a meta-model that incorporates solution-
focused therapy in an analysis of the therapeutic alliance and common factors
that account for the majority of the efficacy of any therapeutic endeavor. This
book is divided into three parts, covering each of the common factors: client
factors, therapist and relationship factors, and placebo factors. Each part sum-
marizes the state of our theoretical knowledge, then dives into specific clinical
and educational applications in specific populations and contexts.
Luc Isebaert, MD , is the director of Korzybski International and head of
the teaching staff of the Korzybski Institutes of Bruges, Paris, and the Nether-
lands. He is the developer of the Bruges Model.
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Solution-Focused Cognitive
and Systemic Therapy
The Bruges Model
Luc Isebaert
First published 2017
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Luc Isebaert
The right of Luc Isebaert to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
First published in French by Éditions érès as Alliance thérapeutique et therapies
brèves: Le modèle de Bruges
© 2015 Luc Isebaert
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-67767-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-67768-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-55941-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To the memory of Steve de Shazer, and to the memory
of Roland Kuhn
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Contents
Foreword by Barry L. Duncan ix
Introduction xliii
PART I
Client Factors 1
1 What Does the Client Want? Setting Goals 3
2 Tackling the Semantics: Useful Views 19
3 How to Promote Freedom of Choice: The Pragmatics 30
4 The Link between Choice and Habits in the
Bruges Model 38
5 Positive Comments and Compliments: Building
Confidence 53
PART II
Therapist and Relationship Factors 61
6 Therapist Qualities and Attitudes 63
7 Four Levels of Intervention 72
8 Levels of Engagement in the Therapeutic
Relationship: The Bruges Flowchart 86
viii Contents
PART III
Placebo Factors 155
9 Hope, Confidence, Allegiance 157
Bibliography and Works Cited 161
Index 171
Foreword
To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The
enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that
is being played at the moment.
George Orwell
S olution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT; de Shazer, 1985, 1994), like much
of family therapy, emerged from a climate of theoretical and practical skep-
ticism and intense interest in the mechanisms of therapeutic change. There
was a growing disillusionment with psychodynamic therapy, and out of this
dissatisfaction emerged a desire to find new ways of doing therapy in a less
time-consuming manner. This search eventually evolved into a cadre of brief,
systemic, contextual approaches that despite divergent influences had common
themes: (1) a shift from the individual to relationship, interaction, and con-
text; (2) a shift toward active, responsive intervention; (3) a shift toward client-
specific versus theory-specific intervention; and (4) a gradual movement toward
therapy as an evolving, co-constructed conversation.
It is worth taking note of the persons and ideas that inspired much of the
work described in this book. The Bateson project’s double-bind theory of
schizophrenia (Bateson, Jackson, Haley, & Weakland, 1956) suggested that the
communication of people considered schizophrenic “made sense” in the con-
text of multiply conflicting and paradoxical injunctions prevalent in the person’s
significant social system, the family. The Bateson project contributed the corner-
stone to a burgeoning brief-therapy movement—that problems can be under-
stood in the context of communicative interaction in significant relationships.
Jay Haley and John Weakland’s prolific study of Milton Erickson’s work
spawned strategic brief therapy (Haley, 1973) and significantly influenced both
the interactional approach of the Mental Research Institute (MRI; Watzla-
wick, Weakland, & Fisch, 1974) and SFBT (de Shazer, 1982). First among these
influences was Erickson’s insistence that therapists should tailor their approach
to fit the client’s unique worldview, expectations, and preferred method of
working. Second, rather than approaching psychological distress as deficit,
Erickson highlighted the client’s abundant storehouse of resources, challenging