Solution-Focused Brief Therapy to curb Child Abuse: Adult Offenders

By: Anisha Hislop

Child abuse is an ongoing issue evident in schools, in the home and it’s certainly no stranger to the media over the last several months. The history behind each case appears to be a re-occurring decimal. We’ve probably heard before that in most cases the perpetrators themselves have been abused in some way as  children, but the cycle can be broken using traits the abuser already possesses.
There are different forms of abuse. They include physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, neglect and even cyber-abuse. Any of these inflicted on a person under the age of 18 years (UN Human rights, 2012) is considered child abuse. The cycle of abuse perpetuates for both the abuser and the abused in that victim and perpetrator may have learnt the behavior as a child and was socialized in an environment where it was commonplace. Nevertheless, here I will look at the adult abuser as a victim and the victim can be helped.

Individuals inflicting abuse usually are experiencing some kind of unresolved personal problem that is transferred to a subordinate in an effort for the abuser to feel powerful.  As such, once the abuser is  able to resolve the underlying problem the cycle of abuse can be effectively broken. In treating with child abuse, focus is usually placed on penal redress for the offender as opposed to coupling the consequences with effective reform.

The law has it’s place and justice must take place but it doesn’t solve the problem.  In cases where reform is made mandatory by the court, attention is given to introducing the individual to new patterns of behavior and exploring the origins of the problem. In this case, change may take a while as the individual may still feel a sense of being isolated, rejected and powerless, which in fact may have led him/her to committing the acts in the first place. However, if we take a look at positive psychology for a minute and what it postulates, results can be marvelous, long-lasting and techniques far more successful in effecting change.

Solution-Focused brief therapy (SFBT) is a method that spins out of positive psychology that has proven to be quite effective with countless issues. SFBT builds on what the client already has.  It focuses on the strengths of the client and uses these as the platform for change. The method assists the client in unearthing instances of exceptions that have occurred in the past.  It is unlikely that they abused every child they encountered.  There may also be instances while in the presence of a victim where abuse did not occur.

These instances are explored in further detail. The method holds clients accountable for their own progress and motivates them to maintain a new pattern of behavior, highlighting the positive changes in relationships and general interpersonal interactions that occur along the way.  Clients are not told what to do, they are the experts without even knowing it; they have the answer. Therapists facilitate the change with guided steps. The new pattern of behavior is not entirely new but is drawn from the positive traits that already exist but were unrecognized. This method brings the new behavior to the forefront so it can be further developed.

Critiques of SFBT highlight the fact that the method may not be suitable for serial offenders as it is with pedophilia.  According to Bond, Woods, Humphrey, Symes and Green (2013), in their practitioner review of the effectiveness of SFBT with children and families, SFBT appears particularly effective as an early intervention when presenting problems are not severe. Therefore, pedophiles may have been sexually abused for a long period of time or the inappropriate acts done to them may have been deeply traumatic resulting in their orientation.  As such, intense long-term psychotherapy would be necessary.

Categorically speaking, adult offenders can be placed into three groups, namely mild offenders, intermediate offenders and severe offenders. What would determine the degree of each category would be duration and the type of abuse inflicted.  No type of abuse is ‘stand alone’, one maybe more dominant than the other and thus should be looked at on a case by case basis. Psychological abuse is interconnected with emotional and verbal abuse since the person’s self-esteem and self-worth are broken down.  Physical abuse is often associated with verbal abuse and neglect where demeaning words accompany the physical acts of violence and the person is deprived of basic needs to intensify suffering. Sexual abuse can have aspects of emotional abuse as well, as the individual is led to believe that it’s his/her fault and he/she is often threatened ‘not to tell’.

In a case somewhat identical to that of child abuse offenders,  Lee, Uken and Sebold (2012) conveys in their study of Solution-focused model with court-mandated domestic violence offenders, SFBT brings about changes in domestic violence offenders in two ways. They indicated that by taking a nonblaming stance and focusing on client’s self-determined personally meaningful goals, solution-focused treatment engages offenders in the process of change more readily and enhances motivation by helping them to envision a personally meaningful and desirable future. The second way they stated was that solution-focused treatment of domestic violence offenders focuses on creating beneficial change in the lives of the client and avoids taking a social control function that emphasizes holding offenders responsible for their problems, teaching and educating them what is right and wrong ( as cited in Franklin, Trepper, McCollum, & Gingerich, 2012).

Although the study didn’t outline the category to which these offenders belong, it suggests to me that SFBT is effective in mild to intermediate offenders.  It maybe that positive outcomes can be obtained from some severe cases but not those in which the offenders have made the offensive behaviors a literal way of life.  Although I do believe that severe cases can be treated with SFBT but as a first responder treatment and can act as a gateway to more intense therapy.  SFTB is essential as adult offenders are dealt a harder blow when it comes to children, which is expected because of the severity of the offence in relation to minors being viewed in a position of least power. Adult offenders were victims of someone else’s abuse.

They too need intervention. They too need care and resolution. Traditional therapy delves into the core problem(s) which has(have) a tendency to create client reluctance to change.  Aspects of traditional therapy have its place as in the cases of severe offenders, but SFBT serves as an oasis of renewal and hope for a new lease on life for child abuse adult offenders in the mild to intermediate category.  In my upcoming article, we will look at the application of SFBT to curb child abuse with child offenders.

References
Bond, C., Woods, K., Humphrey, N., Symes, W. & Green, C. (2013) Practitioner review: The effectiveness of solution focused brief therapy with children and families: A systemic and critical evaluation of the literature from 1990-2010, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23452301

Franklin, C. , Trepper, T., McCollum,E. & Gingerich, W. (2012). SFBT: A handbook of evidence based 
practice, Oxford: New York

United Nations Human Rights (2012). Conventions on the rights of the child, retrieved from 
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx