One Session Therapy?

Traditional therapy takes time and money. We already know these factors can make it hard to access treatment, although everyone also knows I believe therapy is so worth it. There are some new, evidence-based approaches that allow for a single session of therapy that can result in meaningful changes. Here are two cool approaches:

Single-Session Intervention/Consultation

Dr. Jessica Schleider is doing the most forward-facing work in SSIs, although there are many researchers following suit. SSIs are one-time interactions with psychology principles that are meant to lead to changes without having to engage in traditional weekly therapy.

The ideal candidate for SSIs would have mild-to-moderate mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, etc.) and some idea of the problem they want to address. Some SSIs are also designed for parents to learn skills to support their children/teens. Of note, SSIs are not actually referred to as therapy and this is considered a separate concept in terms of treatment.

Dr. Schleider’s research group, the Lab for Scalable Mental Health, has created free, online programs that take about an hour and are considered a “dose” of treatment. These have been researched and found to have positive effects on mental health over time. You can access these online programs here (look for “Projects”).

Her lab has also developed a protocol for a single session guided by a therapist or allied health professional. In this model, rather than engaging in an online program, the participant would talk directly with a therapist who would guide a session designed to only take place once. This could either be the only “therapy” contact ever or several of these could take place, as needed, over time. The session is meant to spark someone’s own creativity in guiding a change in behavior. For example, the outcome of the session might be a plan to start a new hobby with the goal of improving mood, create a schedule for sleeping or eating regularly, reduce marijuana use to better engage with college classes, or create a chore chart for one’s children.

One-Session Treatment of Phobias

Phobias are very specific anxiety disorders, such as a fear of spiders, clowns, or escalators. Although such fears are common, someone might need treatment for these fears if they are getting in the way of life. For example, maybe someone with a fear of elevators just got a new job located on the 20^th floor of a building. Although that might be excellent exercise to take the stairs, getting used to riding in an elevator might be in this person’s best interest.

Because therapists over the years have gotten very efficient at treating phobias with exposure therapy, they can be successfully managed in a single* session.

*Okay, here’s the deal with calling it a single session... it’s not literally one session. This is still traditional therapy. At the very least, someone would need an intake session with a mental health professional to be assessed and diagnosed with a phobia and then create a plan and set up the logistics for the one-session treatment. There might be the intake and potentially one in-between planning session before the “one session.”

One-Session Treatment of Phobias are designed to last 3 hours. The goal is to get through as many exposure tasks as possible during that timeframe, which is why it needs to be planned out ahead of time. By the end of the session, someone should have confronted a variety of anxiety triggers and built a plan to continue practicing similar challenges from home. When people fully engage in the session and practice afterwards, they can have a lasting change in fear/approach toward their phobia.

Both of these one-session approaches are meant to reduce barriers to engaging in mental health treatment. They result in less: transportation time, time spent away from work, time spent in a therapy session, money spent on therapy. If used well, they can both produce similar results to much longer times spent in therapy.

I offer One-Session Treatment of Phobias in my practice and may begin SSIs in time. It’s super rewarding to have these brief contacts with people and provide support knowing that someone’s mental health will likely be improved even though I won’t be seeing them again (or at least regularly).