Brief Therapy Research Articles

Review of Brief therapy with couples.

Review of Brief therapy with couples.

Better, Deeper, and More Enduring Brief Therapy

Better, Deeper, and More Enduring Brief Therapy

Review of Narrative solutions in brief therapy.

Review of Narrative solutions in brief therapy.

Treatment of Excessive Interpersonal Dependency: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model

Clients with excessive dependency often seek treatment for an Axis I anxiety or mood disorder. Simply providing treatment for the Axis I disorder may fail to address the long-standing personality factors that may underlie the acute anxiety and depression. A four-stage model has been proposed for the treatment of excessive interpersonal dependency. This model describes strategic ways therapy content and style should change over the course of treatment. Despite the apparent utility of the four-stage treatment model, it may be difficult to apply in many sites that now emphasize short-term approaches to treatment. In many cases, therapy can be designed to address themes that are relevant to both dependency and the Axis I syndrome. Therapy can be focused around helping clients make improvements in stabilizing emotional reactions, enhancing views of the self, and improving social functioning. Treatment focused on stabilizing emotional reactions can help clients confront and develop tolerance for feelings of depression and anxiety. Treatment focused on enhancing views of the self can help clients improve their self-esteem, self-reinforcement and reduce self-criticism. Treatment focused on improving social functioning can enhance social skills, reduce social anxiety and challenge feelings of loneliness. In addition, treatment can focus on reducing specific aspects of interpersonal dependency and confronting developmental antecedents that may underlie the dependency.

Guiding Self-Change: A new model for brief psychotherapy

The authors summarize the essential ingredients of contemporary Brief Therapy (BT), the features that distinguish BT from longer-term therapies, and BT's core assumptions about personal change and influence. They then describe “Guided Self-Change” (GSC), an explicitly value-driven approach to personal change based on modern principles of adult education. GSC places primary responsibility for change with the patient as early as practicable. Inherent in this approach is an emphasis on efficient, limited utilization of counseling sessions to mentor patients' real life attitude and behavior experiments. Advantages of a highly proactive, value-driven educational orientation over the traditional therapeutic paradigm are enumerated, especially given current pressures for therapeutic efficiency.

Review of The Dilemmas of Brief Psychotherapy.

Review of The Dilemmas of Brief Psychotherapy.

Brief Therapy and Eating Disorders

Brief Therapy and Eating Disorders

Brief Dynamic Psychotherapy for Acute and Chronic Major Depression

Research is lacking on the effects of psychotherapy in depressed patients. This study suggests that brief dynamic psychotherapy is effective for

The Nuts and Bolts of Brief Therapy

The Nuts and Bolts of Brief Therapy

PROCESS, ROBLEMS, AND SOLUTIONS IN BRIEF THERAPY

The MRI problem‐solving and the recently popular solution‐amplifying approaches to brief therapy are described as based upon the same process point of view. A process view is described in contrast to a structural view of human interactions. It is argued that an exclusive focus on amplifying perceived solutions without clearly defining problem patterns may become a problem. Clear articulation of a therapist's assumptions about human interaction, problems, and therapeutic solutions is strongly advocated. Creativity, flexibility, effectiveness, and efficiency are likely to be by‐products of such clarity. Without it, our therapeutic zeal in searching for solutions is likely to become a problem.A Japanese coastal village was once threatened by a tidal wave, but the wave was sighted in advance, far out on the horizon, by a lone farmer in the rice fields on the hillside above the village. At once he set fire to the fields, and the villagers who came swarming up to save their crops were saved from the flood.

Pathways to change: Brief therapy solutions with difficult adolescents

Pathways to change: Brief therapy solutions with difficult adolescents

The Tao in Family Therapy

Family therapy has been compared to various martial arts paradigms. The similarities between strategic therapy and the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism are explored in this article. A central theme is isolated which guides therapists in an approach to the art of family therapy which helps produce rapid change.

On Children and Systems

This paper presents a new approach to pyschological intervention in educational settings, especially in the school. It suggests an integration between psychoanalytic self psychology and strategic therapy. The theoretical discussion is followed by case presentations which demonstrate (a) the need for collaboration between the different systems bearing a significant influence upon the life of the child; and (b) the relevant issues, or meeting points, between psychoanalytic self psychology and strategic therapy.

STRATEGIC-BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION IN THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC NONORGANIC MOTOR DISORDERS1

Chronic nonorganic motor disorders pose particular difficulties because of a combination of diagnostic confusion and intractability to psychotherapeutic or behavioral interventions. Three cases are presented, all of whom failed a rehabilitation approach that emphasized basic behavioral principles of shaping and reinforcement. Despite this initial failure, all three patients showed dramatic and rapid improvement after implementation of an intervention combing elements of strategic and behavior therapy. The strategic element consisted of placing patients in a double bind by telling them full recovery constituted proof of an organic etiology and failure to recovery constituted conclusive evidence of a nonorganic or psychiatric etiology. These cases also illustrate the difficulty in distinguishing between conversion and factitious disorders.

Culturally Sensitive Family Therapy in Appalachia

The authors argue that family therapists should heighten their awareness of and sensitivity to the nuances of the Appalachian culture which impact the process of family therapy. Appalachian cultural value preferences and family relationship structures are contrasted with those of the dominant culture, and differences are highlighted. Guidelines for implementing culturally-sensitive family therapy are discussed. It is hoped that these will enable the family therapist to respond more effectively to differences in Appalachian and middle-class white value preferences and family structure. Lastly, strategic therapy and other here and now problem solving therapies are recommended as treatments of choice with Appalachian people. This paper was written with two objectives in mind. One was to distill from the countless studies of Appalachian culture those characteristics which are relevant to family therapy interventions with Appalachian families. The second was to provide family therapists with guidelines for wor...

Strategic Mediation: Strategies in Service of Family Empowerment*

An approach combining strategic therapy with family mediation is proposed for the extremely conflictual divorcing couple. Utilizing the different skills and different expectations of two specialists working as a team, this strategic approach is organized to emphasize stabilizing or destabilizing interventions at different times.

The Utilization of Family Secrets as Constructive Resources in Strategic Therapy

The focus of this paper is the therapeutic use of family secrets as interventions in strategic family therapy. A detailed case analysis illustrates how family secrets can be evaluated without pursuing their content, the role of the therapist in decisions regarding disclosure of secrets, and the strategic assignment of "secrecy" tasks to promote structural change in families.

Review and Comments- Looking Back, Looking Forward – the Development of Brief Therapy: A Workshop in Honor of John H. Weakland

Review and Comments- Looking Back, Looking Forward – the Development of Brief Therapy: A Workshop in Honor of John H. Weakland

Gender Considerations in the Case of "The Jealous Husband": Strategic Therapy in Review

Gender Considerations in the Case of "The Jealous Husband": Strategic Therapy in Review

Gender and Strategic Marital Therapy

What is your reaction to these different philosophies of treatment? The same case conceptualized by two prominent theorists presents some similarities and many differences. 7hink about it, and let us know your reaction.