Crown House Publishing Ltd – serie

This book is the result of fifteen years of clinical-research work carried out at the Brief Strategic Centre of Arezzo, Italy, for the development of a continuously improving, efficient and effective treatment of various human problems.The authors put forward a simple yet comprehensive description of the epistemology and genealogy of Brief Strategic Therapy, while emphasizing the most evolved therapeutic interventions for each of the various disorders studied, acquired from the experimental-empirical research carried out in everyday clinical practice.All the phases of the advanced model of Brief Strategic Therapy are covered, revealing the corresponding objectives, strategies and language used in the treatment of various psychological problems. Importance is given to the first treatment session and the use of the Strategic Dialogue.For a better understanding of the model and its application, the book contains specific case examples of the treatment of phobic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders, depression, child problems, presumed psychosis and others. In this section, the authors put forward the underlying logic of each specific disorder and its variants, the attempted solutions that maintain and worsen the problem and a step-by-step description of effective therapy.The final part of the book discusses a very controversial issue: the bridging of research and practice. The authors put forward a critical report of the different research approaches used in the study of psychotherapy, followed by a detailed account of the action intervention-research used at the various centres and institutes around the globe that apply the Advanced Brief Strategic Model, together with a description of the future prospects for Brief Strategic Therapy.

This immensely powerful and practical book is about utilising the power of expectation in working with clients. It is the author's contention that creating an environment where the client expects to change is the foundation of doing effective very brief therapy. His own private practice is one where he rarely sees clients more than one or two times. Clients know in advance that this is the way that he works, and so their expectation is that during this session they are going to get down to the hard stuff, and resolve their concerns insofar as it is possible. This means working as if each session were the last one. This book is about all of the things that are designed to work in a single-session mode. This is not to say that some clients will need many more sessions but creating the expectation that each session will be the last creates an impetus towards change that is vital in the therapeutic process.After presenting the basic outline of this approach, the book details (chapter by chapter) the specific approaches that the author finds most useful in his work. These include Ericksonian hypnosis and psychotherapy, solution-focused brief therapy, reframing, Rossi's fail-safe methods, and ideomotor signalling. In addition, metaphor, guided metaphor, and narrative therapy are utilized, as well as many other methods.Battino has put in one place a collection of rapid and effective approaches to doing therapy. The emphasis is on the expectation of both the client and the therapist that rapid, lasting change is possible.