What to Expect with Short-Term Psychotherapy

Short-term psychotherapy lasts 6–12 sessions. It usually focuses on one specific, current challenge.

Short-term psychotherapy is talk therapy that’s done for a limited number of sessions. Often, short-term therapy focuses on one specific concern or challenge that you’re currently facing, such as anger management or negative thinking patterns.

Although long-term psychotherapy has its strengths, short-term therapy might be more suitable for certain situations. For example, if you’re going through a stressful life change or if you’ve been recently bereaved, short-term therapy can help you deal directly with the day-to-day difficulties that you’re facing at the time.

The benefits of short-term therapy can continue long after your sessions end. It can teach you skills that might benefit you in the future, such as stress management techniques.

Widely considered the “gold standard” of psychotherapy, CBT can be used to treat mental health conditions like depression or anxiety . It can also help people deal with stress, adapt to change, or cope after loss or trauma.

CBT helps you identify unhelpful thought and behavior patterns. Once you notice patterns in your thoughts and behaviors that aren’t serving you, CBT can teach you to change your thoughts and actions. It can help you to develop healthy, effective strategies for coping with stress.

Part of the reason for these long wait times and short appointments is due to a nationwide shortage of physicians that is only getting worse. A report by the Association of American Medical Colleges predicts that, due to population growth and specifically growth of the elderly population, the physician shortfall in the U.S. could reach 121,300 by the year 2030.

There are different subtypes of CBT, each with its own focuses and benefits. For example:

• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT):DBT is often used to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD), eating disorders, and depression. It involves learning skills like mindfulness and emotional regulation and can be done in an individual or group setting.
• Exposure therapy: Commonly used to treat phobias or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), exposure therapy involves gradually exposing yourself to anxiety-inducing situations for short periods of time to help you slowly build up a tolerance to the stressor.
• Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT): As the name suggests, MBCT helps you learn mindfulness and meditation techniques to cope with stress. MBCT is often used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

Typically, CBT sessions are very structured. These sessions focus on the here and now and look at specific challenges you’re currently facing. You may be given homework to do in between sessions.

Although CBT can be effective for numerous mental health conditions, it has its limitations.

If you want to explore long-term patterns, subconscious concerns, or delve into your past, a long-term form of therapy (such as psychodynamic therapy) might be more suitable.

Typically used to treat depression, IPT is used to help people manage their relationships more effectively by improving social functioning and communication.

This can help people address social challenges that are caused by, or contribute to, their depression.

IPT may be as effective at treating depression as antidepressant medication, according to several studies. It also can be combined with medication to treat depression more effectively.

IPT can also be used to help with:

• bipolar disorder
• BPD
• eating disorders
• grief
• relationship conflict
• panic disorder

IPT is highly structured. You’ll start by reviewing your current mental health difficulties and your relationships and deciding what you’d like to focus on during therapy. Then, with your therapist, you’ll work on identifying solutions to the problems.

You’ll typically learn new social skills that will help you interact with others better. Your therapist will ask you to practice these skills in real life. Your final sessions will likely revolve around reviewing your progress.

IPT deals with your current relationships. If you’d like to use therapy to explore experiences from your childhood, past relationships, or patterns in your relationships, a different kind of therapy — perhaps long-term psychotherapy — might be more suitable.

SFBT and SFT emphasize focusing on solutions instead of obstacles. During this therapy, you won’t dwell extensively on the details of the challenge — you’ll explain it and try to understand it, but you’ll spend most of the therapy focusing on potential solutions.

They’re considered a kind of humanistic therapy, meaning that it holds that you are the expert on your own life. Incorporating elements of positive psychology, this therapy involves collaborating with the therapist to find solutions to your difficulties.

SFBT and SFT can help with:

• academic challenges
• aggressive behavior
• anxiety
• depression
• relationship difficulties
• self-esteem
• substance use
• trauma

SFBT is also commonly used in an educational setting for students in high schools and colleges.

You’ll first identify a goal. During sessions, you might discuss how you’ve coped with similar issues in the past. This helps you identify your own strengths and resources.

Your therapist might also give you homework, which can consist of experimenting with different solutions or taking small steps toward addressing the issue.