Brief Dynamic Therapy

In "Brief Dynamic Therapy", Dr. Stanley B. Messer demonstrates his approach to shortterm, focused therapy. This treatment is distinguished by its emphasis on finding an issue on which to focus in therapy, a characteristic intrinsic to its brevity (therapy generally runs 12-25 sessions). In this session, Dr. Messer works with a woman named Nancy whose father recently died and whose mother is experiencing dementia and Parkinson's disease. In this typical first session, Dr. Messer actively seeks to determine whether Nancy will be a good candidate for brief dynamic therapy and what might be a suitable focus. Brief dynamic therapy is a modification of traditional psychoanalytic work that has existed in some form since the 1930s-1940s. Arguably, Freud practiced what amounted to brief dynamic therapy in that he rarely saw a client for more than a year. Brief dynamic therapy differs from traditional psychoanalysis in that it is quite brief - anywhere from 1 to 40 sessions, with a typical range of 12 to 25 sessions. It draws on psychoanalytic theory to understand the client and psychoanalytic techniques to conduct the therapy.