Establishing Appropriate Parental Influence in Families with a Drug Abusing Adolescent: Direct and Indirect Methods

Family Therapy and Substance Abuse

“…Inevitably the first therapeutic step taken with these cases is to establish some contract with the index client about ceasing the abusive or problematic behaviour (McGarty, 1986;Selekman, 1987;Stanton, Todd et al, 1982). If this cannot be done or fails, the therapist may form a contract with the non-symptomatic parts of the family in relation to the index client (e.g., Piercy & Frankl, 1986;Walter, 1986) to resist or oppose the index behaviour. Such a contract may take the form of the "devil's pact" (a strategy of Haley's described in Hoffman, 1981, page 279) or other forms of passive resistance to the symptomatic behaviour (e.g., going on strike, prescribed by Schiff & Belson, 1988).…”

The evolution of an integrative family therapy for substance-abusing adolescents: Toward the mutual enhancement of research and practice.

“…It became clear that a central goal of the PBFT model involved supporting parental influence within the family (Piercy & Frankel, 1986a). However, this was also a major challenge because of the large percentage of single parents and parents who were abusing drugs and/or alcohol themselves.…”