Brief therapy is a collection of various psychotherapeutic approaches and has two unique characteristics. First, it concentrates on a specific problem. Secondly, it involves direct intervention. In line with this, the therapist acts proactively in association with the client in the quest to treat both subjective and clinical conditions faster. Brief therapy champions the utilization of natural resources, concentration on observation and creation of multiple perspectives. Furthermore, instead of analyzing the historical underpinnings of the distress, brief therapy seeks to assist the client to conceptualize the present from a broader context, as well as additional functional understandings. When clients embrace such new understandings, they often realize generative and spontaneous change.
During this Course, I found the narrative therapy model to be the most influential. This model is well illustrated in the article authored by Maggie Carey and Shona Russell titled ‘Re-authoring: some answers to commonly asked questions’. This model holds that the understanding of our lives is determined by the stories that we create about them (Carey & Russell, 2003). When and individual seeks help from a therapist, it is because they have undergone a troublesome experience, which makes such people have negative conclusions about themselves. The manner in which individuals understand the events responsible for their problem matters a lot, and it is shaped by relationships, events, influences, and broader relations of power (Carey & Russell, 2003).
Through the narrative model, therapists seek to re-author their client’s storylines so that those clients can identify and co-create alternative and helpful story lines. This model also posits that there are other stories that can be created from our storyline; in other words, people are multi-storied. In essence, the re-authoring of the client’s storyline is co-authored by the therapist in an attempt to address the underlying problem. In line with this, allowing clients to re-author their stories triggers a dramatic change at how they see themselves.
Reference
Carey, M., & Russell, S. (2003). Re-authoring: some answers to commonly asked questions. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 3, pp1-20.
