ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the importance of the focus in brief therapy and of holding the client to the focus. Therapists who have experimented with being more focused and with attending more to the very first words of their clients often find that things move more quickly than they had formerly thought possible. The issue of focus is so central to the approach of brief psychodynamic therapy that more needs to be said about it. Once the strategic focus has been narrowed down and both therapist and client are clear about it, the therapist also needs to help the client to see that this may have its roots in the past, since this is where the problem probably comes from. One of the elements of brief therapy is the use of ‘home-work’. Some people dislike that word because of its connotations with school.
