ABSTRACT
The quotation "experience has taught us that psycho-analytic therapy—the freeing of someone from his neurotic symptoms, inhibitions and abnormalities of character—is a time-consuming business" from Freud contains what is, in a sense, the basic assumption underlying an assessment. Psychotherapy offers no instant cure or magical solution. Human beings are notoriously averse to change— however much they may consciously be seeking it— and psychotherapy is about fundamental change. Most therapists will recognize the patient for whom once-weekly therapy is sufficient, where it can be therapeutic, preoccupying, but not obsessive. Others are able to use once-weekly therapy as an intensive experience; they can internalize the therapist and hold on to the process from week to week. There are some cases where the assessor feels that once-weekly therapy is clearly contraindicated because the patient definitely requires more, and once-weekly sessions would prove totally inadequate.
