ABSTRACT
As Single-session therapy (SST) is goal-oriented, single-session therapists encourage clients to focus on the future. Some therapists do this by encouraging clients to focus on solutions and not on problems. Other therapists don't discourage clients from outlining problems, but quickly encourage them to specify acceptable goals concerning the problems. A solution-focused approach to therapy helps people to benefit from single sessions in three ways. First, since people get stuck as a result of being preoccupied with their problems, solution-focused therapists help them get disentangled by encouraging them to describe solutions or preferred futures in a detailed way. Second, as Iveson points out, some clients have actually solved their problem but do not realise this. Third, some clients, when asked to focus on the future, come to appreciate their present lives better and realise that what was previously unmanageable is in fact manageable. It is possible to take both a problem-focused and a solution-oriented approach to SST.
