Treatment Planning 101

Book excerpt: Treatment Planning 101 will give counselors and coaches a foundation in how to develop goals and action plans for any client. Counselors, including social workers, mental health workers, substance abuse providers and psychotherapists will learn new ways to help a client navigate into the unknown. G. Scott Graham, an experienced clinical supervisor who also holds a degree in business, shows how clinicians and coaches can effectively apply tools traditionally used by business consultants to help clients strategically think about their life situation. The text also includes a link to a video where the author demonstrates one of the tools, Forcefield Analysis, using an unrehearsed, unscripted role play. Graham provides an overview of the four directions treatment plans can take clients, then outlines a revised framework for SMART, the criteria often applied in treatment plan development and often applied when assessing the efficacy of treatment plans. In Treatment Planning 101 you won't find a long list of potential treatment plans to cut and paste to your heart's content. What you will find are is an in-depth look at proper treatment plan mechanics. This text includes a link to a free companion workbook to help the reader explore the concepts outlined in this text to his or her own life situation. This text can be used in conjunction with training or as a stand-alone process to make sure that everyone in an organization is speaking the same language and approaching treatment planning from a similar perspective.