The 6 benefits of strategic brief therapy

Strategic brief therapy is a form of psychotherapy created by Paul Watzlawick and Giorgio Nardone, and is characterized by helping people adopt new perspectives on the problem suffered by the patient and, from there, help him to apply qualitatively different strategies to those he used up to that moment to deal with the problem. situation.

Its simplicity and short duration, among other aspects, make this option the favorite of many psychotherapists and people seeking psychology services.

In this article we will talk about the main benefits of strategic brief therapy and the way in which these have implications for the patient's quality of life.

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The main benefits and advantages of strategic brief therapy

The qualities of strategic brief therapy that make this approach especially valuable include the following.

1. It is a short-term therapeutic intervention

The first of the benefits is quite obvious: as its name suggests, strategic brief therapy is short-lived. And it is that this form of psychological intervention

was conceived from the beginning as a process that can be carried out in a few weeks, to prevent time from passing and patients from becoming frustrated (something that, unfortunately, that some patients stop going to the psychologist and retrace the entire journey made with the therapist).

On the other hand, strategic brief therapy is the opposite of those who see therapy as practically a lifestyle, going to their weekly session for years (on many occasions without really needing to go to the psychologist), something that has to do with what we will see continuation.

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2. Therapy always focuses on the problem

Another characteristic of strategic brief therapy that makes it interesting for many people is that in it a lot of emphasis is placed on very well delimiting the problem to be addressed, the origin of the discomfort of the person. In other words, it does not focus on the symptoms or the different manifestations of what negatively affects the patient, but on what has triggered the general situation from which the person wants to get out.

That is why ways are sought to reformulate what happened in order to analyze it through a different strategy, something that avoids having to be constantly fighting the same problem as it transforms or manifests itself in different ways or in others contexts.

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3. Its simplicity makes it easy to follow

In the process of psychotherapy, patients do not need to face a large number of challenges or memorize many theoretical aspects of what happens to them or should do, which makes the experience more bearable and the chances of getting frustrated decrease.

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4. Therapy focuses on the present

Strategic brief therapy is based on the idea that most of the problems that lead the person to consult a psychologist are there because the person, without realizing account, maintains behavioral dynamics active in the present that keep the cause of their discomfort afloat (although it is not for this reason that they are to blame for the emotional pain that suffers). Therefore, this type of psychotherapy focuses on the present, from the idea that it is not necessary to know the past origin of the problem, but its manifestation in the here and now. This makes the process easier and more accessible, since not everyone is in a position to understand exactly how it all came about.

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5. The effects are long-lasting because the vicious circle of the problem is broken

As we have seen before, strategic brief therapy offers a way to break the vicious cycle in which the person is participating (sometimes without realizing it). Because of this, there is a qualitative change in the person's quality of life, and not only quantitative, which helps prevent the problem from being reborn from its ashes.

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6. It is effective in the treatment of disorders and non-psychopathological problems

As the brief strategic therapy has not been designed considering the reason for consultation in terms of symptoms and mental disorders its use is not limited to people with a specific type of psychopathology, and it is very versatile when it comes to being applied to various problems. Thus, it is useful when the objective is to deal with such common experiences as low self-esteem, fear of speaking in public, lack of time organization in studies, etc.

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