BBFT Sample Schedule

Co-creating a multi-generational family map identifying patterns of mental illness, coping styles, and emotional cut-offs.

Exploring the patient's assigned role ("the fragile one," "the identified patient") and how the family organizes around their symptoms.

Mapping family interactions that precede symptom exacerbation and what family anxiety feels like in the patient's body.

Separating core identity from diagnosis; framing psychosis as a third entity in the room both patient and family must manage.

Neurobiology of schizophrenia, the vulnerability-stress model, dangers of untreated psychosis, and how repeated relapse erodes cognitive baseline (kindling).

How antipsychotics work, side effects such as weight gain and akathisia, why non-adherence happens, and supporting sleep and substance reduction without becoming a warden.

Processing the first break and hospitalizations. Role-play: validating each other's grief without fixing it or defaulting to toxic positivity.

Mourning the life expected for a loved one who is still physically present.