hat there are essentially no differences in outcome between shortand long-term psychotherapies but short-term therapies are significantly more efficient. This is alsothe case when comparing varieties of short-term therapies among themselves (Saposnek, 1984). Infact, the whole concept of long-term psychotherapy may be a myth based on the actual numbers oflong-term cases. Studies over the last four decades have consistently shown that the average numberof therapy sessions attended per patient across a wide variety of psychiatric clinics, ranged from fourto eight (Garfield, 1986). Even in psychoanalysis, clients tend to drop-out before ten sessions overhalf the time and before twenty sessions more than 70% of the time (Garfield and Kurtz, 1952;Gurman and Kniskern, 1978 ). The reasons for these high drop out rates among long-term therapiesvary. However, Saposnek (1984) gives a good overview of the potential reasons stating: While some patients do drop out of therapy dissatisfied, because of a mismatch of values and expectations with their therapists, it has also been found that those who leave therapy early seldom go for therapy elsewhere. No doubt, in some of these cases, the clients may well have been turned off to therapy forever. However, it appears more likely that the clients felt that the problems for which they came had been resolved to their satisfaction (p. 1033).A study by Butcher and Koss (1978) stated that improvement was reported in about 70% of casesin various modalities of short-term therapies. This is a strong testimony to the efficacy of short-termtherapy especially when you consider the time factor. This is not to say that all long-term therapy hasno valid place in the mental health system (it does!), but if outcomes are equal between short andlong-term therapies in general, then that shows that the majority of clients (that are not sufferingfrom the before mentioned serious disorders), can be ...
