Solution Focused Brief Therapy and Vicarious Resilience in Bolivian Protective Family Services Workers

Abstract

Vicarious resilience (VR) is defined as the positive effects caregivers experience within their personal lives, their work lives, and within their worldview as a whole, that come from witnessing the resilience that clients demonstrate in facing their traumatic experiences. This research study is a quasi-experimental pilot study about how solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) influences the vicarious resilience of family protective system (SLIM) workers in Bolivia. The Vicarious Resilience Inventory (VRI) was administered in a pretest/posttest design for an experimental group (applying SFBT) and a control group (training as usual). Both groups experienced an increase in vicarious resilience, but the SFBT group experienced statistically significant improvements on three subscales of the VRI; (a) resourcefulness, (b) recognition of spirituality, and (c) self-awareness. Two other subscales of the VRI neared statistical significance for the SFBT group, client inspired hope and consciousness of power. It is anticipated that with a larger sample size these subscales would also have been statistically significant. Additional research is needed to generalize the results of this pilot study to a larger population.