The nine principles of MST ensure that the treatment gains continue

Since becoming involved with Multisystemic Therapy (MST) 13 years ago, I have probably been asked 1,000 times what MST is or what I do. It can be a complicated question to answer only because MST does so many things. We solve problems. We keep at-risk kids at home. We empower good people to be great parents. We make communities safer. We save taxpayer dollars. We champion juvenile-justice reform...honestly, I could go on. 

I am proud of my work and the collective work of MST teams across the globe. While there may have been a few parties or family gatherings at which it would have been nice to provide a shorter answer like “I teach third grade,” I’m glad I do what I do. But perhaps the part that makes me most proud is our treatment generalization.

Multisystemic therapists, funders and families from the UK explain how MST works in 5 minutes

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, then a video is worth at least a million—maybe more.

If you are a parent, funder, therapist or community stakeholder, you don’t want to miss this video. 

Stella and Paul were losing control of their adopted son, Charlie.

He was becoming violent and affecting the whole family. Luckily, they found a partner to work alongside them and keep their family together.

Stella and Paul have children ranging from age 37 to 12. Their two youngest, Brenda and Charlie, were adopted from foster care and have special needs.

“In our naiveté, we thought, we’re going to adopt these kids and bring them into a loving home. Then, they’d be just like the other kids we have,” said Stella. “But we didn’t realize that at a young age, there’s so much that they already picked up that we can’t change.”

Staying the course with Multisystemic Therapy

Recently, I decided it was time to get healthy. You know when you reach that point in life when some of your behaviors (like eating sugary foods, not exercising daily, etc.) will catch up to you if you don’t make a change? So, I started my “healthy journey.” About two weeks in, my muscles were aching from my intensive workouts (OK, intensive for me), I missed my midday sugar rush, and the water, how could one person be asked to drink so much water? But something told me that even though I hadn’t seen any great gains yet, I was on the right path to better health and shouldn’t give up.

This caused me to pause and think about the people we work with in Multisystemic Therapy (MST)—the youth, their families and the key community stakeholders. 

A mom and two MST experts share their experiences on how MST works 

Think about how hopeless Michelle felt. Her daughter, Sam, was out of control, and Michelle was out of options. Or so she thought.

After trying many different services and suffering many disappointments, Michelle was doubtful that anything would work. Still, she gave Multisystemic Therapy (MST) a try. 

A childhood dream realized

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? A doctor, a lawyer, an astronaut? Studies show that just 6 percent of adults end up in the careers they wanted as kids. Katelyn Jakubovic is part of that 6 percent.

When a therapist gets a new case, other professionals will sometimes warn, “there are cultural issues.” 

But what are “cultural issues”? 

I got the “cultural issues” advisory with a new case. The social worker described the girl’s poor behaviour as “very cultural.” Whatever that meant. So, alongside the usual startup work, I set out to find how her background might be driving her actions and poor choices.

In her own words. One mum shares her story of her MST treatment

Her relationship with her 14-year-old son had broken down. She argued with her own parents because they had different parenting styles, and she felt like she could no longer go to them for needed support. Most of all Mum was scared. It seemed as if it was too late to turn things around, no matter what she did. Mum was convinced that she had lost her son. She was convinced rules, consequences and rewards would only make things worse. 

What was she to do?

A little bit about us

Sweden is a small country in northern Europe with a population of 10 million. It is divided into 290 municipalities, all of which have autonomy. Only 25 have a population of more than 80,000. So, most Swedes live in small towns across the country. This means that there is no state involvement in local programs. The National Board of Health and Welfare gives guidelines for best practices, but these are just guidelines. 

Sometimes the key to engaging a family is knowing where they come from

Fifteen-year-old Aaron (not his real name) was referred to Multisystemic System (MST) due to physical and verbal aggression at home, starting fires and substance abuse. His mum was a single parent who had immigrated to the U.K. when civil war broke out in their home country. It was just the two of them. She had left behind two, now adult, children whom she had when she was only 12 and 13 years old. They were raised by others in her family. Mum had significant mental-health problems, including a diagnosis of schizophrenia and PTSD following trauma in her home country. Her Christian faith was very important to her.

The MST treatment did not start auspiciously.