What Is Brief Psychotherapy?

Short-term psychotherapy refers to psychotherapy with limited time or number of treatments, and generally refers to psychotherapy with no more than 25 meetings. Tell the patient at the beginning of the treatment that the treatment will end within a predetermined time. For example, 10 talks or no more than 3 months.

Brachytherapy has certain advantages in psychotherapy, and is known for its short duration, quick results, and stable therapeutic effect. The number of short-term treatments varies widely, such as Malan's simple

Although the views on the duration of short course treatment are inconsistent, the basic characteristics of short course treatment are more consistent, and they all believe that short course treatment has five basic characteristics: (1) timely intervention; (2) relatively high level of activity of the therapist; (3) Clear and limited treatment goals; (4) Clear and clear focus confirmation and maintenance; (5) Negotiate the treatment time limit with the patient. Although different scholars have different usages of the word "focus", internal therapists' activities, and methods for determining time limits, they all follow these basic characteristics. ^[2]

The advantages are: 1. Both the doctor and the patient know that the treatment should make as much progress as possible within a certain period of time. Studies have shown that short-term psychotherapy with time limitation is better than those without time limitation. 2. Suitable for China's national conditions. Because of the large number of patients, the low cost and time required for this method, short-term psychotherapy is more suitable. 3. Conducive to scientific research and training of psychotherapy. It takes too long to collect scientific research materials for long-term psychotherapy. For example, it took Kernberg et al. (1972) 18 years to collect the materials of 42 cases, which is too uneconomical.

The challenges are: 1. How to achieve good results in a limited time? The doctor needs to know how he operates so that the patient's attitude and behavior can change quickly and lastingly. The focus of treatment is to study how patients will change their attitudes and behaviors. 2. How to construct an effective short-range psychotherapy structure that can meet the needs of different patients. 3. How to make the short-term psychotherapy method suitable for Chinese people's psychology, in line with Chinese culture, and easier for patients to accept.

Goal: Reduce pain and solve problems. The essence of short-term psychotherapy is the process of solving problems and developing coping abilities. Dramatic changes in personality are not expected. Therefore, doctors take an active and instructive role in treating patients' problems. Excessive recourse to childhood experiences, a passive, non-guided approach, is not appropriate for short-term psychotherapy.

Adaptation: Various non-psychiatric psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression and related disorders, have a strong desire to change, a history of conflict or loss of interpersonal relationship, psychological "maturity", middle and upper intellectual level, can understand reality, Anyone who is experiencing pain and discomfort and is seeking help is applicable.

Not suitable for: mental illness, addiction, severe personality disorder. As the old saying goes: "Those who have no eyes cannot show five colors, and those who have no ears cannot tell five sounds." Because they do not work well with short-term psychotherapy.

Weak defenses that can lead to suicide or harm others are the main taboos. Common contraindications include: evidence of being impulsive in difficult situations; history of psychogenic psychosis; certain personality disorders (such as marginal, narcissistic, impulsive, antisocial, etc.); alcohol or drug abuse And dependents; people with a history of any kind of mental illness; patients cannot maintain their daily essential functions without regular support.