Brief Therapy
What Is Brief Therapy?
Brief Therapy is not about the number of sessions – it’s a process and construct aimed at targeting specific challenges or concerns and assertively addressing them. Probably the most notable difference between traditional open-ended therapy and brief, focused therapy is that the concerns to be addressed are clarified in the first 1-2 sessions. Both you and your counselor actively and mutually plan your treatment goals. Your presenting problems (symptoms) are addressed in “episodes” of treatment – rather than over a continuum of sessions. Typically, brief therapy is used for targeted issues / life challenges and can be sought again for something else later on. For example, a client may first seek therapy following the unexpected loss of a job, then again later when her children leave for college, and perhaps later following the death of a loved one.
How Does It Work?
One of the basic tenants is that changing behaviors is the most effective way to change how you feel about yourself. Your clinician will likely give you “homework” assignments; increasing your social interactions, engaging in regular relaxation or physical exercises, practicing skills learned in session and tracking the outcomes, and so on. Sometimes the brief therapist will have you focus on possible solutions rather that the problem itself. Or they might have you focus on what behaviors you are engaged in that maintain the problem and construct new responses to break these patterns.
What Happens In The Sessions?
Initially, I will help clarify and prioritize your most distressing concerns. Then, you will set the goals. The therapist may identify patterns of behavior that lead to and/or support the problems and make suggestions on how you can approach these differently. You will likely be given “homework” as noted above to practice applying new behaviors and approaches to the problematic situations you’ve chosen to focus on. The basic idea is to take the issues that you’ve identified, focus on those that are most distressing, learn and initiate new behavior patterns in these areas, so that you can go forward, on your own, with a healthier approach to these challenges and a happier outcome.