ABSTRACT
Re-thinking a service delivery paradigm within a single session therapy (SST) framework inevitably changes the ways we consider the therapeutic process – making each session count! In clinical practice, this means (1) the rapid development of therapeutic alliance and (2) the life of the therapy process, from assessment to intervention to evaluation condensed into a single session. To illustrate, this article analyzes the fully transcribed one of the master tapes in Emotion-Focused Therapy where chair work is demonstrated in a single session, and finds six processes in SST: (1) history taking; (2) formulation; (3) contracting; (4) working-through change; (5) evaluation; and (6) preparing for exit. A micro-analysis of the single session details how the therapist manages multiple tasks in SST. This analysis helps social workers to re-think service delivery and attrition rates in community mental health settings to enhance health equity and the provision of socially just mental health services.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Eunjung Lee
Eunjung Lee, PhD, MSW, RSW, is an Associate Professor and Endowed Chair in Mental Health and Health at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. She is a psychotherapy process researcher focusing on cross-cultural clinical practice in community mental health. Using critical theories in language, discourse and power, her research focuses on everyday interactions in clinical practice and simulation-based learning in social work education, as well as immigration, transnationalism, and politics of multiculturalism and welfare state.
Marley Tratner
Marley Tratner, JD, MSW is a School-Based Mentoring Coordinator with Big Brothers Big Sisters of South-West Durham. She is a recent graduate of the Master of Social Work Program at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto with a focus on work with children and families. She also holds a Juris Doctor from the Queen’s University Faculty of Law.