ABSTRACT
Often a client will come to Single-session therapy (SST) facing an adversity. Before that adversity can be effectively addressed, the client needs to be in a good frame of mind to deal with it. As this adversity is negative, it is healthy for the client to have negative feelings about it, but negative feelings that encourage rather than discourage problem-solving. The therapist need to respond quickly and effectively, respect the client's initial goal statement, help the client to be more specific; and ask the client what they would be happy to have achieved at the end of the session that would lead them to think that they could deal with things on their own without further sessions. Spending time over goal-setting with a client is time spent well in SST.
