Self-Defeating Behavior Workshops: Systems Approach for Hard-to-Serve Veterans

For the past two and one‐half years, the self‐defeating behavior (SDB) theory has been applied to a population of veterans who had a history of problems in job training, vocational placement, and academic settings. A group‐therapy structure meeting eight times during a four‐week period is the basic approach of the SDB seminar. In conjunction with the SDB seminar, a variety of support people and agencies have combined efforts to develop a systems approach to helping the veterans eliminate behaviors that are self‐defeating. Results from the systems approach have been excellent.