Brief solution-driven therapy is a structured therapeutic process, and it has a very particular focus in mind. I would recommend that people engage with a brief solution-driven process under certain conditions: Firstly, there is a clear difficulty that particular can identify, which relates to how they feel, think, behave, relate to the world etc. Secondly, the problem requiring a solution is one that occurs in the context of ordinary life. In other words, this problem is not linked with experiences of early life trauma, or severe clinical symptoms, and is not a problem that is associated with the person being in any particular danger, for example, abuse of any nature. Such difficulties as these should not be put under the pressure of a time-limited process. Outside of this, and in the course of our ordinary difficult lives, I believe that a brief solution-focused process is often very useful.
When we begin brief solution-driven psychotherapy, I focus the first session on getting a very clear sense of the problem as you put it in your own words. The first session, which will be 90 minutes in length, will also focus on your history. I will ask you specific questions in order to get a clear sense of your personal history so that we can have a clear understanding of possible links between past and present, as these links might inform the solutions which we come up with through the process. Following this initial assessment session, we would then engage in an eight-session long process, which will be structured and solution-focused, with each session being 50-minutes in length. The tenth session will be a final wrap-up, in which we take stock of the process, and discuss the future in terms of ongoing management of the difficulties at hand. I always recommend a follow-up session one month after the date of the final process.
