Make every session count for clients! Rethinking clinical social work practice from Single Session Therapy (SST): A case illustration of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Re-thinking a service delivery paradigm within a single session therapy (SST) framework inevitably changes the ways we consider the therapeutic process – making each session count! In clinical practice, this means (1) the rapid development of therapeutic alliance and (2) the life of the therapy process, from assessment to intervention to evaluation condensed into a single session. To illustrate, this article analyzes the fully transcribed one of the master tapes in Emotion-Focused Therapy where chair work is demonstrated in a single session, and finds six processes in SST: (1) history taking; (2) formulation; (3) contracting; (4) working-through change; (5) evaluation; and (6) preparing for exit. A micro-analysis of the single session details how the therapist manages multiple tasks in SST. This analysis helps social workers to re-think service delivery and attrition rates in community mental health settings to enhance health equity and the provision of socially just mental health services.