Very brief psychotherapy in the psychiatric consultation setting.

Very brief psychotherapy has emerged as a unique treatment modality in recent years. The limited time frame dictates flexibility in the choice of therapeutic technique, but there exists a need for an assessment model to link specific technique with the clinical problem. An early psychotherapeutic formulation containing three parts is the central component of the assessment model: theoretical description of the problem, immediate goal, and intervention technique. Various theories of psychopathology and therapeutic techniques can be simultaneously applied to the clinical problem. Three cases illustrate the use of this model in a consultation/liaison setting.