H. J. C. van Marle: Short-term treatment: short and powerful
A discrepancy between demand and offer in psychotherapy makes shortterm treatment necessary. In the literature three main conceptions are to divide in this form of treatment: crisisintervention-techniques, psychoanalyticalbased psychotherapy and structured behavior-change, all with results of longterm personality change. The next similarities are to distinguish:
time less than 20 sessions, appointments after the first interview, selection of a focus, activity of the therapist, emphasis on autonomy of the patient, offering insight, importancy of termination and phasing the process of therapy. Differences between certain authors in selectioncriteria, diagnosis and outcome-variables are discussed. The results of these authors after follow-up and other comparitive research indicate that short-term treatment is as powerful as longterm therapies. The conciusion of the author is that, if the therapist succeeds in realizing the above-mentioned similarities, which is to ascertain after a few sessions, he has to do with a suited patient and his therapy-outcome will be probably succesfull. This article ends with a defense for further training in short-term therapy.