ing/therapy is more directive andtime-limited, regardless of the particular therapeutic theory being employed. The counselor assumesan active instead of a passive role in his relationship with the client. Due to budget constraints, therising cost of mental-health care, and a growing demand for services over the last decade, a largenumber of counselors, in a large variety of different work environments, have been using briefcounseling and short-term therapy approaches (Nugent, 1994; Steenbarger, 1992). Short-term therapyand counseling have consistently proven to be a powerful, efficient, and effective approach forresolving human emotional and behavioral problems, and it is a major force in the field ofpsychotherapy and counseling today (Saposnek, 1984).Although the overwhelming emphasis on brief counseling/therapy in the mental healthsystem is a relatively recent phenomenon, the concept itself is at least as old as Freud. Freudoriginally viewed psychoanalysis as a research tool that had powerful therapeutic applications.Although he tried to limit his early analysis to six to twelve months, he had hoped that in time itwould be superseded by more efficient methods (Saposnek, 1984; Nugent, 1994; Phillips, 1985).According to Small (1979), Historically, it is clear that Freud first sought a quick cure; when hebegan he could not foresee the developments that would lengthen the psychoanalytic process. Whowould have believed that Freud would have preferred a brief therapy over the open-ended, time-unlimited therapy process that classical psychoanalysis had become. Social changes brought on by the pressures of World War II led to a great demand for short-term interventions. The stress-related emergencies of World War II necessitated the developmentof early forms of crisis intervention aimed at symptom reduction, strengthening of copingmechanisms, and prevention of further breakdown (Saposnek, 1984). Brief therapy had found aniche and was made a...
