hould not be strayed from, according to Littrell. Littrell also believes in using humor liberally in counseling, and it is in evidence throughout the book in the way Littrell presents his material. Littrell uses techniques from the cutting edge of counseling in urging his clients to take some decisive action which is different to what they have been doing, i.e. to make some significant changes in their lives to solve their problems. He stresses that they must do this to change the destructive patterns that have kept them stuck in a rut of the patterns of their life that are responsible for their current difficulties.
Particularly useful in Littrell's book is that at the end of each chapter, he describes ways in which counselors can take ideas they have read in his book and incorporate them into their practice. They way Littrell writes and the intriguing ideas he presents motivate the reader to take these ideas and use them with their own clients. Littrell stresses the need to identify positively oriented goals to focus on during counseling sessions, and to focus on a client's strengths in the process to speed up the counseling sessions.
Littrell does discuss when it is necessary to change to longer-term approaches in counseling. He limits these occasions to psychoses, severe mood disorders, eating disorders and attention deficit disorder. In most other cases he suggests clients and therapists abandon forays into more dynamic approaches in favor of brief counseling. This area is a little questionable, unless the clients have simple, clearly definable problems, with no underlying psychological implications.
Littrell's arguments in favor of brief counseling, and the points he makes are extremely valid. There is a need for a short-term counseling option for people on busy schedules who do not need really in-depth therapy for deeply-rooted problems. His approach at focusing on the reason that brought the client to ...