MATTHEW SELEKMAN

Matthew Selekman is the founder and director of Partners for Collaborative Solutions, an international organization for the practice and training in family therapy and brief therapy in Evanston, IL, USA. He is an addiction consultant, clinical member, and accredited supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He specializes in family therapy, therapy with children, adolescents, and adults who have difficulties managing anger, exhibit oppositional defiant behavior, gang involvement, substance abuse, self-harm, eating disorders, and with highly conflictive couples.

In 2006, 2000, and 1999, he received the Walter S. Rosenberry Award from the Children’s Hospital of Denver, Colorado, for making significant contributions to the fields of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

Matthew has published numerous articles on family therapy and is the author of nine practice-oriented books: Working with High-Risk Adolescents: A Strengths-Based Collaborative Therapy Approach; (with Mark Beyebach) Changing Self-Destructive Habits: Pathways to Solutions with Couples and Families; with Giorgio Nardone, Bingeing, Purging, Torturing: Therapy in Brief Time; Collaborative Brief Therapy with Children; Self-Harm Treatment Manual for Adolescents and Young Adults: A Strengths-Based Collaborative Brief Therapy Approach; Working with Self-Harming Adolescents: A Strengths-Based Collaborative Approach; Pathways to Change: Brief Therapy with Difficult Adolescents, 2nd ed. (a globally recognized book and an essential manual for many professionals); and with Thomas Todd, Family Therapy Approaches with Adolescents Who Abuse Substances. Recently, in 2024, he published «The Therapist’s Use of Self: Being the Catalyst for Change in Couple and Family Therapy.»

Since 1985, Matthew has presented workshops on family therapy and strengths-based collaborative brief therapy with couples and families, challenging clients presenting self-destructive behaviors, serious difficulties in anger control, and children and adolescents with extensive treatment histories throughout North America, Mexico, South America, Europe, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, and South Africa. He provides consultations to mental health and addiction professionals, juvenile justice programs, behavioral health care organizations, and school systems worldwide. His passion, humor, and strong emphasis on teaching creative and practical therapeutic tools and strategies that professionals can use with their most difficult clients are often highly recognized. Matthew’s research interests include: couple and family therapy with self-harm, substance abuse, and eating disorders; the therapeutic relationship and alliance-building strategies; creative uses of self as a catalyst for change; and clients’ self-generating change capabilities and natural recovery.

Published Works

Selekman, M. D. (1999). Collaborative brief therapy with children. Guilford Press. Selekman, M. D. (2002). Working with self-harming adolescents: A strengths-based collaborative approach. Norton. Selekman, M. D. (2005). Pathways to change: Brief therapy with difficult adolescents (2nd ed.). Guilford Press. Selekman, M. D., & Todd, T. (2005). Family therapy approaches with adolescents who abuse substances. Norton. Selekman, M. D. (2009). Self-harm treatment manual for adolescents and young adults: A strengths-based collaborative brief therapy approach. Norton. Selekman, M. D., & Nardone, G. (2010). Bingeing, purging, torturing: Therapy in brief time. Routledge. Selekman, M. D., & Beyebach, M. (2013). Changing self-destructive habits: Pathways to solutions with couples and families. Routledge. Selekman, M. D. (2017). Working with high-risk adolescents: A strengths-based collaborative therapy approach. Norton. Selekman, M. D. (2024). The therapist’s use of self: Being the catalyst for change in couple and family therapy. Norton.