Guided self-change (GSC) treatment, a brief, cognitive-behavioral, motivational intervention first developed for use with problem drinkers, has now been evaluated with drug abusers, adolescents and Spanish-speaking alcohol abusers. This article reviews the foundations for the development of GSC; describes the results from several studies using this model of treatment, including an extension of the principles to a community-level study; speculates on the effective cognitive elements of the approach; and presents suggestions for future research.