Brief Therapy

Brief Therapy is a style of therapy that encourages the therapist to assist his clients to recognize their already developed and existing resources and strengths as an immediate means for effectively coping with their problems.  The therapy focuses on these strengths rather than the clients' pathologies as a means of creating hope and a sense of how to transition more quickly. 

Some therapists have the impression that brief therapy is for more superficial problems, but brief therapy has been effectively used to treat depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, and disociative disorders. 

Managed care companies have witnessed the efficacy and long-lasting results of brief therapy.  By definition, brief therapy means treatment of six or fewer sessions, unless there are extenuating circumstances that require as many as twelve sessions.  Insurance companies need to add Brief Therapists to their panels to demonstrate to their clients (employers) that they are practicing cost containment. 

Normally, brief therapy training is limited to individuals who are licensed in mental health, however, an exception has been made for League members.  Simply write in your league membership number as your license number. 

Once you have completed your brief therapy training with On Good Authority, Inc.,  a professional home study organization serving mental health care providers, you are eligible to submit a copy of your certificate to the League offices, and we will also issue you a certificate as a Brief Therapist.

Call On Good Authority at 1/800/835-9636, and order Volume III, the home-study course on Brief Therapy.  It costs $95 and includes four audio cassette tapes and four exams, evaluation forms, an index, and supplementary materials provided by some of the speakers.  Completion of the exams gives you seven continuing education units (based upon the minimum time needed to listen to over five hours of taped interviews, study the related readings, study and answer the exams, and consider and complete the evaluations).  The exams are completed by circling the correct answers.  Most members have found it most effective to complete the exams while listening to the tapes.  Once you have finished your exams, you send them to PsychoEducational Resources; PO Box 2196, Keystone Heights, FL, 32656 or you can fax them at 904/473-7300 (put your name on each page of each exam).

PsychoEducational Resources will score your exams as a third party.  You must answer 70% of the questions correctly to pass.  They document your certification and send you a certificate of completion in a couple of weeks.  You can then add the initials CBT to your credentials (Certified Brief Therapist).