ABSTRACT
Introduction Traditionally, effective group therapy was thought of as necessarily longterm treatment. Economic realities and theoretical shifts, however, converged to produce substantial changes in the health care delivery system leading to the development of more efficient and cost-effective treatment modalities. Group treatment was not to be left out of these tectonic shifts in the practice of psychotherapy. The International Journal of Group Psychotherapy produced a special issue in 1985 devoted to the practice of brief or short-term group therapy. Several of the now seminal articles chronicling the origins of short-term groups were published in this special issue (Dies, 1985; Klein, 1985; Poey, 1985). These writings provide some of the early guidelines and principles for the practice of brief group therapy.
