ABSTRACT
Single session therapy (SST) is an increasingly popular approach to mental health treatment that aims to address clients’ presenting difficulties in a single appointment. However, experiential approaches to SST are limited. In this paper I describe the theory and practice of “chairwork” – an integrative, action-focused method of intervention centred on the concept of self-multiplicity – and outline how these procedures can be coherently applied in a single-session format. A preliminary protocol for delivering single-session chairwork (SSC) or “brief dialogical psychotherapy” is presented, alongside a case illustration that demonstrates features of this approach. Finally, directions for future research and the continued development of chairwork as a psychotherapeutic modality are considered.
Acknowledgements
The author receives royalties from a textbook related to the topic of this article.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
Data presented in this paper (verbatim extracts and post-intervention feedback relating to the case study) cannot be shared in the interests of confidentiality and anonymity.
Notes
1 For more comprehensive reviews of chairwork-related outcome studies, see Elliott et al. (Citation2004) and Pugh (Citationin press).
2 It is worth noting that strengthening a single, superordinate I-position represents just one of several transformations, although this is the focus for many psychotherapies. For a thorough critique of this “single self assumption”, see Fadiman and Gruber (Citation2020).
3 SSC intake forms can be accessed on the following webpage: www.chairwork.co.uk/single-session-chairwork.
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Matthew Pugh
Matthew Pugh is a Clinical Psychologist, Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist, Advanced Schema Therapist, Voice Dialogue Facilitator, researcher, and chairwork practitioner. He is employed as a Senior Clinical Psychologist (NHS) and Teaching Fellow (University College London), alongside working in private practice in the UK. He is the co-director of www.chairwork.co.uk and the author of “Cognitive Behavioural Chairwork: Distinctive Features” (Routledge). His interests relate to self-multiplicity and the applications of chairwork in psychotherapy and coaching.