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Sep 04

Another Brief about Brief Therapy

By Jay Slupesky
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Psychology 101


Schooner, San Francisco Bay

Solution-Focused Therapy is a “brief” therapy.  What are the differences between brief therapies and other, more traditional psychotherapies? Well, obviously, the therapy is brief!  It could be as short as 5 or 6 sessions (which is why insurance companies love brief therapy). But there are other differences too. In brief therapies:

  • The focus is on the here-and-now. There is not a lot of time spent on the past (e.g. troubles from childhood).
  • Therapist and client collaborate to set concrete and achievable goals in the first session.
  • Therapist and client must form a good working relationship right away, rather than having it develop over time.
  • The therapist is active and involved, rather than being a passive listener.

The effectiveness of brief therapy seems to be relatively high, according to multiple research studies. I think this is due in part to the fact that the goals are made very clear at the beginning, and that by the end of the therapy, it is easy to determine or not those goals have been attained.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Psychology 101.

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