Single session therapy in history: Bloom’s guidelines

If you follow these articles you have seen one thing: several therapists of different approaches over the years have supported, experimented and implemented principles and practices later found in Single Session Therapy.

An example of this is Article 11 known psychotherapists who adopt the principles of the Single Session.

The above allows us to focus on the paradigm shift that underlies the basic idea of Single Session Therapy, but also of other forms of Short Therapy.

What are we talking about?

 

Privilege the resources of the person

If the traditional models focus on psychopathology, the discomfort or the problem, the framework within which to move in a Single Session Therapy is to privilege the person’s resources, his skills, the ways of knowing and interpreting his own world, helping each to achieve the results that represent their success and well-being (Hoyt, 2011).

This paradigm shift is also inevitably linked to the therapist’s mindset (detailed in the article The mindset to be adopted for a Single Session Therapy), which must concern attitudes that are essential for a profitable TSS, namely:

1. Always be there
2. Stay focused
3. Don’t complicate things
4. Be brief
5. Stay humble
6. Use a win-win approach

In addition to what has been expressed, and the considerations already set out in the other previous articles, considering the history of a framework sufficiently dated over time (at least in the rest of the world) and the guidelines described in article 10 General Principles for starting to practice TSS, it is also important to note what Budman and colleagues (1992) argued, and taken up by Hoyt (2009), who believe that in every therapy process (regardless of the approach but even more important in the field of Short Therapies and TSS) necessary:

1. Quickly build a therapeutic alliance
2. Have clear goals and results to pursue
3. Explicitly clarify the responsibilities of the therapist on the one hand and of the client on the other
4. Focus on the client’s resources and skills, giving back to the person his or her adaptive abilities and responsibility for change
5. Expect change: if the therapist is not convinced of the possibility of a single therapy session, why and how could / should the client be?
6. Be focused on the here and now
7. Do the best in every Single Work Session, knowing that it could be the last, also considering the idea of an intermittent path and reassure the person on the concept of the Open Door

 

Bloom’s contribution

Picking up the story, Bloom edited a book in 1981 in which he cited numerous reports of Single Session Therapy sessions. From the readings and experiences reviewed (1981, 1992) he identified a number of suggestions to be taken into consideration for the practice of Single Session Therapy.

1. 1. Identify a focal problem, build with the person the aspect on which you intend to intervene in the here and now
2. Do not underestimate the resources and strengths of the person, take into consideration the potential rather than dwell on the limits and critical points
3. Encourage to be active subjects
4. 4. Explore present attempts at interpretation
5. Encourage the expression of affections
6. Use the interview, right away, to start the process aimed at solving the problem
7. Keep track of time
8. Don’t be too ambitious
9. Minimize matters of fact
10. Do not be overly worried and focused on the triggering event
11. Avoid detours
12. Don’t overestimate the client’s awareness (i.e. don’t ignore what may seem obvious)
13. Help to mobilize social resources as a support for the person
14. Inform and fill the information gaps of the person
15. Build a follow up plan, to follow and verify the person’s journey

 

Conclusions

For a long time in psychotherapeutic practice, as in other contexts, numerous authors have experimented with treatments characterized by a Single Work Session, systematizing guidelines and principles to be adopted in TSS. Today, considering the “times” we live in, Single Session Therapy can offer support to the health and social context that is very valid, for at least 3 reasons:

1. Return to the person his state of well-being in the shortest possible time. The request for help is something that arises in the here and now and in this space the person needs to face it.
2. The Single Session Therapy allows, as already written, to reduce waiting lists for access to public services, affecting both the reduction of the costs of the Health System and the prevention of drop-out and people (who turn to public or private services that they are) are likely to run, considering the waiting times between the request for help and provision of the Service.
3. We live in a “time” characterized by emerging problems (dictated by social, economic and cultural conditions) capable of affecting people’s lives in negative terms, therefore early and quick interventions are as useful as necessary.

Over the course of its history, TSS has been the object of study for many years and above all translated in many parts of the world into a widespread and validated operational practice, for this reason the Italian Center for Single Session Therapy considers it necessary to offer the Italian context the opportunity to use (and take advantage of) a framework according to which a single Therapy Session can often restore wellbeing and planning to people.

 

Federico Piccirilli

Psychologist, Psychotherapist

Co-Founder of the Italian Center

for Single Session Therapy

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