This week I’m continuing my series with Dr. Joel Minden. This time we discussed how much can be accomplished in a single psychotherapy session. Joel and I explored single-session interventions, one-session treatments for phobias, and sudden gains. Topics we touched on included:

• Goals for the first therapy session
• The hope that often follows a first session
• One as the modal number of therapy sessions
• Shorter treatment protocols, including single session interventions (SSIs)
• The work of Dr. Jessica Schleider and her colleagues
  • 2017 meta-analysis
  • 2017 review
  • 2022 randomized clinical trial
• The value of helping clients develop flexible responses to emotions and strategies for behavioral change
• The importance of clinical significance, in addition to statistical significance
• How to interpret an effect
• One-Session Treatment for phobias, developed by Öst, and the big effect of exposure on anxiety
• Sudden gains in the course of psychotherapy treatment
• The interplay between behavioral and cognitive change
• The advantages of single-session interventions, including scalability

Joel Minden, PhD, is a clinical psychologist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety and related disorders.

He is the author of Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss (affiliate link), founder of the Chico Center for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, diplomate of The Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies, and lecturer in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Chico.

Find Joel online at his website, follow him on Twitter, and read his blog on Psychology Today.