Abstract
When I started research and clinical work with specific phobics in the mid 1970s, very little differentiation was made in the research literature between agoraphobia, social phobia, and specific phobia regarding the number of therapy sessions. Thus, I used eight 1-hour sessions in my early studies on specific phobias. After having worked with that format for about 5 years I started getting bored seeing the same patients week after week. I also began to question why behavior therapists should follow the same format as devised by psychodynamic short-term therapy (i.e. one session per week for 12–20 weeks).
What are you up to Ronja?
I’m going to take care not to fall into the river.
Where are you going to do that then?
I have to do it by the river if it is going to be of any use, don’t I?
From Ronja Robbersdaughter by Astrid Lindgren (1981)
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Öst, LG. (2012). One-Session Treatment: Principles and Procedures with Adults. In: Davis III, T., Ollendick, T., Öst, LG. (eds) Intensive One-Session Treatment of Specific Phobias. Autism and Child Psychopathology Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3253-1_4
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