Brief psychotherapy

Brief psychotherapy
Intervention
MeSH	D011614

Brief psychotherapy (brief therapy, planned short-term therapy,^[1] is an umbrella term for a variety of approaches to short-term, solution-oriented psychotherapy.

Overview

Brief therapy differs from other schools of therapy in that it emphasizes (1) a focus on a specific problem and (2) direct intervention. In brief therapy, the therapist takes responsibility for working more pro-actively with the client in order to treat clinical and subjective conditions faster. It also emphasizes precise observation, utilization of natural resources, and temporary suspension of disbelief to consider new perspectives and multiple viewpoints.

Rather than the formal analysis of historical causes of distress, the primary approach of brief therapy is to help the client to view the present from a wider context and to utilize more functional understandings (not necessarily at a conscious level). By becoming aware of these new understandings, successful clients will de facto undergo spontaneous and generative change.

Brief therapy is often highly strategic, exploratory, and solution-based rather than problem-oriented. It is less concerned with how a problem arose than with the current factors sustaining it and preventing change. Brief therapists do not adhere to one "correct" approach, but rather accept that there being many paths, any of which may or may not in combination turn out to be ultimately beneficial.

Founding proponents of brief therapy

Milton Erickson was a practitioner of brief therapy, using clinical hypnosis as his primary tool. To a great extent he developed this himself. His approach was popularized by Jay Haley, in the book "Uncommon therapy: The psychiatric techniques of Milton Erickson M.D."

"The analogy Erickson uses is that of a person who wants to change the course of a river. if he opposes the river by trying to block it, the river will merely go over and around him. But if he accepts the force of the river and diverts it in a new direction, the force of the river will cut a new channel."^[2]

Richard Bandler, the co-founder of neuro-linguistic programming, is another firm proponent of brief therapy. After many years of studying Erickson's therapeutic work, he wrote:^[3]

"It's easier to cure a phobia in ten minutes than in five years... I didn't realize that the speed with which you do things makes them last... I taught people the phobia cure. They'd do part of it one week, part of it the next, and part of it the week after. Then they'd come to me and say "It doesn't work!" If, however, you do it in five minutes, and repeat it till it happens very fast, the brain understands. That's part of how the brain learns... I discovered that the human mind does not learn slowly. It learns quickly. I didn't know that."

Notable therapists

Nicholas A. Cummings (Nick Cummings) (brief therapy, focused therapy)
Steve de Shazer (solution focused brief therapy)
Milton H. Erickson (hypnotherapy, strategic therapy, brief therapy)
Paul Watzlawick (Brief therapy, systems theory)
Giorgio Nardone (Brief therapy, strategic therapy)
Todd Smith(divorcing codepedent women from their husbands and alcohol)

References

↑ Bandler, Richard. Time for a Change. Cupertino, Calif.: Meta Publications, 1993. 20. Print.
↑ Haley, Jay. Uncommon Therapy; the Psychiatric Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. New York: Norton, 1973. 24. Print.
↑ Bandler, Richard. Time for a Change. Cupertino, Calif.: Meta Publications, 1993. 20. Print.

External links

Information on NLP A form of Brief Therapy
The Mental Research Institute One of the founding clinics of Brief Therapy and home of a number of the notable therapists mentioned above
Brief Psychotherapy at the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Social Construction Therapies Network

Psychotherapy

Schools

Psychodynamics	Psychoanalysis Adlerian therapy Analytical therapy

Cognitive and behavioral	Behavior therapy Cognitive behavioral therapy Cognitive therapy Compassion focused therapy Dialectical behavior therapy Rational emotive behavior therapy Combined with Applied behavior analysis Clinical behavior analysis or CBA Functional analytic psychotherapy Acceptance and commitment therapy

Humanistic	Person-centered therapy Emotionally focused therapy Existential therapy Focusing Gestalt therapy Logotherapy

Other	Art therapy Dance therapy Feminist therapy Integrative psychotherapy Interpretive therapy Multimodal therapy Music therapy Narrative therapy Play therapy Reality therapy Systemic therapy Transactional analysis List

Approaches

Research

Techniques

Behaviour therapy	Aversion therapy Applied behavior analysis (ABA) (formerly Behavior modification) Desensitization Homework

Other individual therapy	Autogenic training Biofeedback Exposure therapy Free association Hypnotherapy

Group psychotherapy	Family therapy Psychodrama Sensitivity training Relationship counseling

People

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.