Time-Limited Psychotherapy. Repr of 1973 Ed (Commonwealth Fund Book)

Rating:
Summary: A Psychotherapy Classic
Review: James Mann is the father of time-limited therapy. He proposes that most of life's difficulties may be reduced to separation anxiety. Life transitions cause distress (i.e., graduation, relocation, loss of a loved one). People can best learn to cope with separation anxiety by making it the central issue in therapy. This is accomplished by limiting the number of therapy sessions to 12. In other words, the client will experience a new separation (life transition)in a therapeutic setting. On a specified day, a final session will occur. The quality relationship that has been developed with the therapist will end. During the intervening sessions, the therapist teaches the client how to address their own needs for meaningful interaction. The final sessions deal with the client's reaction to termination. Accoding to Mann, he most satisfying state is one in which "the person needs others, enjoys others, and prefers others but if deprived of others, can still give them up and find others." Fixing the time limit also brings treatment within a practical period for research by allowing for quantification and better control of treatment variables.

Rating:
Summary: A Psychotherapy Classic
Review: James Mann is the father of time-limited therapy. He proposes that most of life's difficulties may be reduced to separation anxiety. Life transitions cause distress (i.e., graduation, relocation, loss of a loved one). People can best learn to cope with separation anxiety by making it the central issue in therapy. This is accomplished by limiting the number of therapy sessions to 12. In other words, the client will experience a new separation (life transition)in a therapeutic setting. On a specified day, a final session will occur. The quality relationship that has been developed with the therapist will end. During the intervening sessions, the therapist teaches the client how to address their own needs for meaningful interaction. The final sessions deal with the client's reaction to termination. Accoding to Mann, he most satisfying state is one in which "the person needs others, enjoys others, and prefers others but if deprived of others, can still give them up and find others." Fixing the time limit also brings treatment within a practical period for research by allowing for quantification and better control of treatment variables.