The Brief Strategic Model

The basis of the strategic model is that a problem or “symptom” persists due to the fact that solutions to overcome the problem have repeatedly been ineffective, to the point of becoming a vicious circle.

Therefore, the aim of the strategic intervention is to interrupt the vicious circle that has developed between attempted solutions and persistence of the problem.

By analysing ineffective solutions that reveal the structure of the problem, the strategic intervention can build upon specific manoeuvres, that with the aid of effective stratagems (specific strategic procedures that allow the professional to go beyond resistance to change), that are able to subvert the problematic equilibrium of the system.

The Strategic model proposes to induce changes in the modalities in which people have built up their private dysfunctional realities, hence, in their relational, cognitive and emotional being that are concealed behind their disorder:

To solve a problem it is necessary to understand how the perceptive and reactive system work within the reality of the here and now, in the actual situation that the person is living, rather than looking for causes from the past that triggered the problem.

Thus, it is of fundamental importance to understand “how the problem functions” and not “why the problem exists”, allowing the strategic intervention to, on the one side, eliminate symptoms and dysfunctional behaviours, and on the other to produce changes in the way a person creates his/her own personal and interpersonal reality, guaranteeing permanent change.