Objective of this article is to explore how, in Single Session Therapy, each meeting is used from the very beginning to work on the person’s resources. From this perspective, the session is not so much aimed at understanding the causes of the problem as it is at enabling the person to become immediately more capable of dealing with it. In this sense, “doing less to achieve more” means intervening precisely in the present in order to produce concrete effects within each encounter.
In the field of brief therapies, it is increasingly clear that it is not so much the duration of treatment that determines the depth of change, but rather the quality of the interventions and their alignment with the person’s resources (Wampold, 2001; Norcross & Wampold, 2018). This assumption, now widely shared within scientific research, represents not only a theoretical reference but also a true shift in how therapy is conceived and practiced.
My name is Selena Tomei, a psychotherapist specialized in Systemic Strategic Brief Therapies at the ICNOS Institute. My encounter with Single Session Therapy (SST) occurred at a stage of my training in which, although I was already working within brief therapy models, I felt a constant tension between two poles: on one side, the desire to be effective for my clients; on the other, the risk of diluting change over a therapeutic timeframe that does not always reflect people’s real needs or the effectiveness of the therapeutic relationship. SST gave shape and structure to this tension, transforming it into a clear, intentional, and responsible methodological position.
Moreover, research includes numerous studies showing that the average duration of therapy ranges from 3 to 8 sessions (Budman & Gurman, 1988), while the average length of therapeutic work is actually one session (Bloom, 1981; Hoyt, 2000; Talmon, 1990).
From the Centrality of the Problem to a Focus on Resources
Single Session Therapy is based on a premise that is as simple as it is revolutionary compared to traditionally long-term psychotherapies: every meeting can potentially be the only meeting (Talmon, 1990).
This does not imply a reduction in complexity but rather its intensification, which does not diminish the quality of therapeutic action; on the contrary, it maximizes it.
Working as if it were the only session means, first of all, assuming that what happens in the here and now has a transformative value in itself, and that change should not be postponed, prepared for, or promised, but made possible immediately.
Within this framework, the focus shifts decisively from the problem to resources. Not because the problem is denied or minimized, but because it is addressed “from the side,” through what in the person already works, has worked, or can be reactivated.
At the same time, the literature itself suggests that it is precisely clients’ self-healing capacities and their ability to creatively use all available resources that lead to effective change, and that this represents one of the most therapeutic factors in psychotherapy (Bohart & Tallman, 2010, 2022).
From this perspective, Single Session Therapy can be seen as a true workshop of resources in the here and now, where the therapist works with focus, precision, and responsibility to activate meaningful change efficiently as well as effectively within each individual meeting.
Therapeutic action is guided not so much by the search for what is missing, but by what is already present, even if it has not yet been recognized as such (Bohart & Tallman, 2010, 2022).
The Session as a Transformative Experience
One of the most revolutionary aspects underlying the method of Single Session Therapy is the idea of the session as an event with its own complete meaning. Each meeting is constructed as a “vertical” process, oriented not so much toward initiating a therapeutic journey as toward creating the conditions to generate an immediate, action-oriented transformative experience (Cannistrà & Piccirilli, 2018).
This requires the therapist to adopt an active, tailor-made stance from the very first minutes of the meeting: defining concrete and measurable goals (Cannistrà & Piccirilli, 2018), exploring the client’s Theory of Change (Duncan & Miller, 2000), identifying and amplifying resources and exceptions, and experimenting with new possibilities directly within the session (Cannistrà & Piccirilli, 2018).
Techniques borrowed from the solution-oriented tradition (Cannistrà & Piccirilli, 2021), such as the miracle question, the “as if” technique, or scaling questions, become true maieutic tools used not to “teach” something to the client, but to evoke new connections and strengthen the client’s perception of their own effectiveness.
As a therapist trained in brief therapies, I have come to understand that this way of working does not make therapy “faster”, but rather denser: the efficiency of time does not sacrifice depth but instead becomes its privileged vehicle (Cannistrà & Piccirilli, 2018).
Every word, every question, every silence acquires greater specific weight, because it is oriented toward leaving the client with something useful, usable, and empowering, regardless of whether subsequent meetings take place (while, of course, not denying that possibility).
A Shift Also for the Therapist
Working from a single-session perspective has also profoundly transformed my experience of the therapeutic role. Renouncing the position of the undisputed expert on change is not a loss but an added value: it restores competence, responsibility, and agency to the client, while giving the therapist the role of a facilitator of possibilities rather than a problem solver (Cannistrà & Piccirilli, 2018).
In this sense, SST becomes a true forge of possibilities in the here and now, a place where therapist and client co-construct meanings, strategies, and trajectories of action. It is a method that requires rigor, precision, and deep trust in the person’s self-resolving capacities, but that, in return, offers a sense of coherence and authenticity in the practice of therapy.
Why Be Part of an Editorial Team on Single Session Therapy
My decision to become part of an editorial team dedicated to Single Session Therapy stems precisely from this transformation. I believe that today, more than ever, there is a need for a space of dialogue among professionals who share a vision of therapy oriented toward effectiveness, responsibility, and the enhancement of resources.
Promoting SST does not mean proposing a “brief therapy for everyone,” but offering a methodological framework that is solid, flexible, and deeply respectful of subjectivity.
For me, writing about Single Session Therapy means contributing to a clinical culture that does not measure the value of therapeutic work by the number of sessions, but by the quality of the transformative experience we are able to co-construct with the people we meet.
It is in this direction that my contribution to this editorial space is placed: sharing theoretical reflections, clinical tools, and open questions emerging from scientific research about a way of practicing therapy that, by working on resources, has radically changed the way of being a therapist as well.
Selena Tomei
Psychologist, Specialized in Brief
Systemic-Strategic Therapies
at the ICNOS Institute
Bibliography
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