ABSTRACT
One of the challenges of single-session therapy is for you to ensure that you help your client take away with them something that is meaningful in the sense of being able to address effectively their target problem and move towards their goal. However, you need to be concerned that what the client takes away with them has durable results. The chances of doing this are enhanced when the client is helped to identify and deal with what I call a central mechanism that is responsible for the presence of their target problem. Given the emphasis in SSI-CBT on cognitive and behavioural factors, this central mechanism is likely to be cognitive in nature and have behavioural referents in that it explains why the client acts in the way they do when they are in ‘problem’ mode. There also needs to be some plausible alternative in cognitive meaning for the client, which itself needs to suggest alternative and more constructive behaviours that are goal-oriented. Here is an example from my own practice of SSICBT (WD).
