Therapists new to Single-Session Therapy (SST) will often struggle to bring the SST mindset to the work and will in turn struggle to help their clients get the most out of the time that they choose to spend together.
How to Think and Intervene Like a Single-Session Therapist provides the trainee with an opportunity to discover how experienced therapists think, and how their thoughts influence their interventions within the single-session context. Presenting SST in a way that both interests conventional therapists and shows the potential of this way of delivering therapy services, Windy Dryden details the multiple levels of thinking and intervening that go into single-session practice. He covers the orientation thinking experienced SST therapists have about the work when they are not doing it, the pre-session thinking they engage in while actively preparing to do the work, and the in-session thinking they engage in while doing the work. The book outlines the theory behind SST and the ways those ideas form its practice, using clinical vignettes and case scenarios to demonstrate how single-session therapists can make the best use of the limited time with their clients. The book additionally presents an ongoing dialogue between an SST therapist and a conventional therapist to highlight the thinking of the former and how the criticisms of SST by the latter can be responded to.
This highly practical guide will be essential reading for any therapist who is new to or has recently been introduced to the practice of SST.