Brief Psychotherapies

Brief psychotherapies are the modal psychotherapeutic intervention. Vast research literature supports the efficacy of brief psychotherapies from multiple theoretical orientations. In fact, most research in psychotherapy is on brief therapy. Financial pressures to deliver cost-effective treatment have resulted in an increasing emphasis on making therapy brief by design. The growth of brief psychotherapy has also been aided by the manualization of therapies and transdiagnostic applicability to an increasing range of disorders. Thus, brief psychotherapies are likely to continue to be highly relevant to the field of psychotherapy well into the future. In this chapter, the history, efficacy/effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and frameworks of behavioral, cognitive, strategic, relational, solution-focused, contextual, psychodynamic, and interpersonal psychotherapies are reviewed. Factors common to brief psychotherapies, including time-effectiveness, patient inclusion criteria, focal aims, therapist and patient activity, and sequencing of change, are presented. The chapter concludes with a focus on two contemporary topics, telehealth delivery of brief psychotherapy, and the research supporting neural change secondary to brief psychotherapy.