One-At-A-Time Therapy
Sometimes what’s most needed from therapy is one moment of meaningful support. One At A Time Therapy (OAAT) and Single-Session Therapy (SST) respond to this need. It’s a way of delivering support used by therapists from all types of approaches (person-centred, psychodynamic, behavioural, etc.). Below are some thoughts on what this way of working is like, how to decide if it might be a good fit for you, how to prepare, and what happen afterwards.
What is One-At-A-Time Therapy?
One-At-A-Time Therapy tends to work well when you want to address a specific issue at this moment. It might relate to feeling stuck and wanting to identify a way to do things differently. It might relate to feeling impacted by the behaviour of others and wanting to find ways to exercise your influence. It might relate to wanting to identify more effective coping mechanisms and strategies to fit a particular situation. Possible benefits include access to swift support, and no requirement to make a financial or time commitment to multiple sessions. Possible challenges include limits to learning about the cause of an issue, the need for advance preparation, and feeling left alone at the end of the session.
Seeing whether it fits
It’s not always easy to know what time of therapy would work best for us. The following questions are designed to help you consider whether One-At-A-Time Therapy might be a good fit for you:
- What is the specific issue that I’m ready to address now?
- What do I want to gain from a single session?
- Am I ready to share my thoughts and feelings with a therapist and hear their responses?
- Am I motivated to learn something about myself and put this learning into action?
- Am I open to a caring and collaborative exchange with a therapist?
- Am I comfortable with entering a temporary relationship with a therapist?
Setting a goal
Your goal for One-At-A-Time Therapy should reflect the focus on one issue, what motivates you, what’s achievable for you now, what would make the most difference to you, and what’s realistic within the time limit. The goal you have for the issue you’d like to address might be different to the goal that you set for your single session of therapy. This would mean taking a step towards change rather than completing the change. A therapist can support you to set an appropriate goal at the beginning of the session.
Although One-At-A-Time Therapy is available at short notice, it’s not suitable for those in a mental health crisis. If you are feeling extreme anxiety, feeling suicidal or self-harming, feeling manic, or experiencing psychosis (hearing voices or feeling paranoid) please contact your local NHS urgent mental health helpline.
What happens next?
After a single session of therapy there should be time to sit with and reflect on what was discussed, and to put into practice a step towards change. Later, there will usually be a follow-up contact from the therapist inviting you to feedback on your experience and to return for further support if useful. You might decide that one therapy session is enough to achieve your goal. However, you might choose to arrange for a further single session or to request an assessment for ongoing therapy. This could be with the same therapist, or you could decide to explore other therapists, depending on what works for you and what’s available. You could also be signposted to other resources and potential sources of support.
Further Information
This article by Juno DeMelo sees her explore what Single-Session Therapy looks and feels like. And Psychotherapist Windy Dryden, a leading practitioner of the single-session approach, provides a useful summary in this short illustrated video.
