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Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 1:75-86 (2001)
© 2001 Oxford University Press

Research Commentary

Focused Single-Session Psychotherapy: A Review of the Clinical and Research Literature

   Bernard L. Bloom, PhD

The Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado

Contact author: Bernard L. Bloom, PhD, 240 Abbey Place, Boulder CO 80302. E-mail: jobbloom{at}home.com.

Since the initial examination of the scattered literature on single-session psychotherapy, more than 40 papers that address some aspect of this form of very brief psychotherapy have been located in two archival data sets (PsycINFO and MEDLINE). The literature consists of clinical overviews, program descriptions and case presentations, and a few uncontrolled and controlled outcome studies. Single-session psychotherapy has been practiced from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives with no evidence thus far that any specific perspective is superior to any other. Single-session psychotherapy has been found to be somewhat effective for intrapsychic difficulties, interpersonal conflicts, and as an adjunct treatment for medical disorders, and has been shown to be useful for the treatment of children and adolescents as well as adults. Between one-third and one-half of randomly selected clients seen in single-session psychotherapy report being sufficiently helped by the experience so that the therapeutic episode can be terminated.

KEY WORDS: single-session psychotherapy, brief therapy, outcome studies, interpersonal attitudes, psychotherapy research




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