ABSTRACT
Suitability criteria for brief therapy were first established by David Malart and were divided into "radical" and "conservative". Choosing clients suitable for brief therapy requires a shrewd eye for the clients' most troubling emotional problems, for their ability to establish and to use a relationship, and for the psychological mindedness that facilitates a therapeutic dialogue. Brief therapy generally be the treatment of choice for young people because of the developmental position they have reached and need to reach, and a regressive open-ended treatment would run counter to their developmental task of achieving independence from family and parents. The counsellor will have to negotiate with the service provider for more sessions, perhaps for a referral-on, or for a form of intermittent brief therapy that is spaced out over the length of time it would take to make a significant difference to the presenting problem.
