Tailoring Solution-Focused Brief Therapy for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer: A Qualitative Investigation

Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) is an empirically-supported psychotherapeutic intervention in treating mental health issues in the general population. When being delivered to adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with cancer, specific techniques and skills of SFBT need to be tailored to meet the unique bio-psycho-social challenges of the AYA cancer population. Using a patient-centered approach, our team interviewed 14 AYAs with cancer who received SFBT for cancer (SFBT-C) to inform the tailoring and refinement of the existing SFBT intervention specifically for the AYA cancer population. Themes emerged within three broad categories that informed the tailoring and refinement of SFBT for AYAs with cancer, i.e., general experiences, strengths, and weaknesses of SFBT-C. AYAs with cancer found SFBT-C overall positively different from other approaches. Strengths include SFBT-C’s collaborative nature, using positive emotion as an important change mechanism, and a good balance between being relevant to cancer and not focusing too much on their cancer. Areas of improvement include assignment flexibility and different strategies to address resistance. The findings of this paper significantly inform the delivery of SFBT-C to AYAs with cancer using patient-centered feedback and input.