Managed Care and Short-Term Therapy
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In the age of managed care that prioritizes short-term, efficient therapeutic treatments over traditional long-term therapies, brief psychotherapies have become increasingly prevalent (Whittinghill, Whittinghill, & Loesch, 2000). Apart from the financial factors, brief psychotherapies have also been deemed by clients to be a preferred treatment approach for resolving short-term crisis situations (Cooper & Archer, 1999). As Cummings (1995) suggested, brief psychotherapies can be analogized to seeing family practitioners only when clients are in need of counseling. Once improvement is made, clients can terminate counseling and return at a later date when a new problem arises. Currently, there are many different types of brief psychotherapeutic approaches: "psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, strategic concepts and techniques,à multimodal therapy, solution-focused therapy and systemic therapy" (Cooper & Archer, 1999, p. 21). The existence of a diversity of approaches to brief therapy also indicates that there is no blanket theory to encapsulate this approach (O'Hanlon, 1990). Nonetheless, for the remainder of this paper, the distinctive characteristics that link all these different brief psychotherapies together will be identified and discussed based on their applicability in a clinical context. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of brief psychotherapies is the brief therapists' conscious management of time. More precisely, brief therapists utilize time a
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herapists often assign homework assignments to the clients in order to build on the work that has been accomplished during the sessions. For instance, clients may be instructed to observe positive patterns of behavior, or to make manageable modifications to patterns of problem behavior (Molnar & de Shazer, 1987).
In addition, brief therapists from various theoretical approaches also utilize response strategies to introduce new perspectives and experiences to their clients. Brief therapists operating from a psychoanalytic perspective utilize interpretation to help their clients obtain insight into their problems by revealing the gap between their viewpoints and those of the clients. The process of diminishing the gap between these two viewpoints thus enables the clients to create a new and more positive perspective of their situation. Interpretations are often coupled with confrontations and assertions of approval to challenge clients to understand and view their presenting problem in a variety of ways (Hill, 1992).
Furthermore, brief therapists are typically focused solely on the current patterns of behavior. Essentially, brief therapists work with clients in identifying the most pressing problems that are occurring the pre
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Approximate Word count = 1699
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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