Time is of the essence: a selective review of the fall and rise of brief therapy research

Shapiro, D. A., Barkham, M., Stiles, W. B., Hardy, G. E., Rees, A., Reynolds, S. and Startup, M. (2003) Time is of the essence: a selective review of the fall and rise of brief therapy research. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 76 (3). pp. 211-235. ISSN 2044-8341 doi: 10.1348/147608303322362460

Abstract/Summary

For compelling reasons of equity and the advance of public health, brief psychotherapy has become the dominant format in both practice and research. One consequence of this is the apparent decline of a distinct stream of brief therapy research. However, much of the agenda formerly identified with that research stream is of increasing importance to the field. Time is indeed of the essence in current psychotherapy research. For example, factors conducive to the time efficiency of brief psychodynamic therapy have been described recently. The important question ‘How much therapy is enough?’ has been addressed by studies inspired by the dose-response analysis of Howard and colleagues. The value of ultra-brief interventions has been examined. These issues are considered in a selective review, drawing in particular on the work of the Sheffield/Leeds psychotherapy of depression research group. This research treats the number of treatment sessions as an independent variable, thereby providing a causal analysis of the dose-response relationship over a range from two to 16 sessions, illuminated by a comparative analysis of change processes in treatments of different durations. Its results enable some specification of the extent and nature of incremental benefit derived from additional sessions in the psychotherapy of depression.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/46345
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Charlie Waller Institute Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Anxiety and Depression in Young People (AnDY)
Publisher	Wiley
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