ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author considers different ways of beginning the single session once contracting has been done. Getting started is different if there has been a pre-session contact between therapist and client than if there has been no such contact, as will be shown. After contracting has been done, the therapist and client are ready to begin the session. Pre-session contact between therapist and client may vary in length. Quite often at the end of the pre-session contact, the therapist might suggest that the client engages in a task between the pre-session contact and the face-to-face session. The client’s responses suggest a way forward for the therapist regarding creating a possible focus for the session. In the author’s practice of Single-Session Integrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, it helps him to reflect in writing on the complexities of a pre-session telephone contact.
