This article offers contemplation about short term psychotherapy. It is built around five major themes. Short term therapy can be considered as:
1. a modish kind of therapy, counterpoint to a standard of long term therapy,
2. treatment aimed not at cure, but directed towards progression or the removal of stagnation in the process,
3. a type of treatment that, trough time, has manifested itself in very different forms, with the conclusion that its efficacy is rather theory- or method-neutral,
4. a form of treatment that is less adequate in cases of personality-disorders,
5. treatment that is supply-defined, in contrast to demand-defined treatment, the length and method of which are the result of a deliberation with the client about the investment that he or she can and wishes to make that is as transparent as possible (in his or her own language, and with explanations that describe the procedures of the therapy and the different types of goals).
This article offers also a book review of Rijnders, De Jong, Isebaert, Van Tilburg and Van den Ameele (2002).
The tPeP (Journal Person-centered experiential Psychotherapy) is the scientific journal for Dutch and Flemish psychotherapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, that work from, or are interested in a client-centered perspective.