Psychotherapy Abbreviation: A Practical Guide

Psychotherapy Abbreviation is a field-tested approach designed to train both experienced and student mental health professionals to do brief therapy that is effective and highly satisfactory to clients. This book is unique in that it is the only text that is compatible with almost all approaches to treatment, making it suitable as a primer of brief therapy usable by virtually all psychotherapists. Most other brief therapy books are affiliated with a specific theory of psychopathology, making each limited to those who share the author's theoretical orientation.

Pekarik wrote this text based on his own brief therapy training manual because he could not find a text suitable for the wide range of psychotherapy approaches represented by the therapists whom he trains in his research, teaching, and consulting work. By offering a unique approach derived from the "active ingredients" common to all forms of brief therapy and the literature on client treatment preferences, Psychotherapy Abbreviation simplifies the abbreviation process and makes it accessible to all therapists. Pekarik's strategies have been field-tested; he has used them to train hundreds of therapists who have demonstrated success with clients--increased client satisfaction, improved treatment effectiveness, and lowered dropout rates. These same therapists also doubled the proportion of cases they treated with brief therapy.

This “how to do it” text is extremely practical. It assumes that the reader already has a theory and set of therapy techniques, true of even most graduate students. The emphasis is then placed on the treatment abbreviation process itself. Because of this highly focused approach, the text will, like the technique it describes, be concise and brief. By avoiding association with any particular school of therapy, Pekarik's approach is usable by all schools of therapy. Therapists and future therapists now in graduate school will benefit from Psychotherapy Abbreviation as it explores these topics:

• rationale for the abbreviation of psychotherapy
• practical and ethical issues to consider in client selection
• a conceptual model for treatment abbreviation
• rapid assessment and case conceptualization
• establishing a brief therapy focus
• goal establishment and negotiation
• adapting standard psychotherapy techniques to the brief format
• practice issues in brief therapy

Psychotherapy Abbreviation is two-part. Part one is an orientation to this model of brief therapy in which Pekarik emphasizes a research-based rationale for doing brief therapy; presents a general theory of why brief treatments work; and provides guidelines for the identification of appropriate clients for brief therapy.

The second part of the text is devoted to technical skills training. It begins with an overview of the techniques common to most schools of brief therapy and describes a “universal model” of brief therapy. Readers are then taken step-by-step through a description of the four most important abbreviation techniques, presented in the typical order of use with clients. To encourage readers to consistently apply the recommended techniques, Pekarik includes one particular training case which he describes in detail and uses it in all of the technical skills chapters in special “Case Application” sections of these chapters. Before describing the detailed applications, Pekarik prompts readers to consider how they would apply the abbreviating technique presented in that chapter to the case. With individual exercises, he gives special attention to how readers can adapt their personal therapy styles and theoretical orientations to brief therapy. As a result, readers develop both a rationale and abbreviation strategy compatible with their values and practical needs as therapists. The exercises are found in each chapter in special "exercise".

Terry S Trepper, Helena E Papay