Using solution-focused brief therapy within an eco-systemic approach to support return to school following an acquired brain injury

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a therapeutic intervention within an eco-systemic approach used to support a pupil’s return to school following an acquired brain injury (ABI). The outcomes suggest that there were three key facilitative factors during the reintegration back into school. These were: the psychological formulation of the individual’s needs and strengths to support a personalised approach to their reintegration; supporting and educating school staff during the individual’s reintegration; and one-to-one therapeutic work with the individual. This paper provides some preliminary support for the use of an eco-systemic model when EPs are undertaking therapeutic work in similar cases. However, as this work is based on a single case study, the findings need to be treated with caution. There is a requirement for further research to provide a more robust evidence base in order to determine the use of therapeutic approaches within an eco-systemic approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational psychology
• therapeutic approaches
• solution-focused brief therapy
• eco-systemic
• acquired brain injury

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the student, his parent and school staff for their support in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.