Beyond the One-Way Mirror - Page 9


During the course of this demonstration, I illustrated other treatment strategies of the PLL model, such as the use of enactments to help the son and father speak to each other and to give the mother the opportunity to tell the family how tired she was of being put in the middle. However, it was clearly the movie clip that made the most powerful emotional impact. After the session, the father turned to the audience and said that, with all the therapies he'd tried over the years, this was the first time he'd felt hope for his family's future.

Once the family had left the room, the atmosphere became electric. The therapists in attendance were excited about what they'd just witnessed, feeling the same hope that the father had expressed. Even the skeptical probation officers began to talk about families on their caseload whom they'd like to refer to the program immediately.

The next day, I sat down with the local director of juvenile justice and the executive director of the service provider to develop a strategic action plan. We figured out how PLL could be customized to fit their current gaps in service.

Before the live demonstration, I'd secured the buy-in from the state for the PLL model on the basis of increased delivery of treatment and cost savings. The state employed other evidence-based programs for adolescent conduct disorders, but they were delivered using a one-on-one individual family therapy format. This meant that one therapist could see only one family at a time. The state representative bought in when he realized that a PLL therapist working in a group format could treat more than twice the number of families. In addition, the cost per youth using PLL was 50 to 80 percent less than using the other models.

The five-day training that followed was a breeze. The therapists were excited and pumped. They'd even read the books and group therapy leader's guide before I stepped off the plane!

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