Social skills training

Domain II · Behavioural & cognitive · Bellack, Mueser, Gingerich · 1970

What it is

Social skills training (SST) is a structured behavioural group (or individual) intervention. It teaches people the specific interpersonal behaviours they need to reach their own social, vocational and independent-living goals. It is not a single brand of therapy. It is a method family from 1970s…

Format

• SST has no formal "phases" in the manual. It has a fixed pre-group step, a repeating session sequence and a curriculum sequence. The phase labels below are an organising. Their contents come from the sources cited.
• Phase 0 – Engagement and individual goal setting (1 individual session, sometimes split in two). Goals: build rapport, get informed consent, explain what group SST involves (role plays, outside practice), and agree on a personally meaningful, specific goal. Common goals are making friends, leisure,…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: Bellack, Mueser, Gingerich & Agresta (2004), Social Skills Training for Schizophrenia: A Step-by-Step Guide (2nd ed.), as put into practice by the US VA VISN 5 MIRECC SST programme (session sequence, Quick Guide 2024, fidelity checklist). Where Liberman's UCLA Social and Independent Living Skills (SILS) modules differ, the difference is named. The 3rd edition (Mueser, Bellack, Gingerich, Agresta &…
• Social skills training (SST) is a structured behavioural group (or individual) intervention. It teaches people the specific interpersonal behaviours they need to reach their own social, vocational and independent-living goals. It is not a single brand of therapy. It is a method family from 1970s behaviour therapy, with manualised versions for serious mental illness (Bellack/Mueser; Liberman), and offshoots for…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• long or clever models. Keep them simple and step-perfect.
• the target drifting. Keep the posted steps as the endpoint.
• stacking corrections. More than two lowers success and morale.
• reinforcement becoming automatic and unspecific. Link it to behaviour.
• steps written in language members do not use. Simplify wording on the board.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.