Keep in Mind That It Is Possible to Conduct a Session Without Prior Knowledge of the Person. However, Also Keep in Mind That Your Client May Feel That, Without You Knowing Certain Things About Them, You Will Not Be Able to Help Them

When I first trained as a counsellor, one of the most impactful experiences of that training was watching a film series called Three Approaches to Psychotherapy ( Shostrom, 1965 ). Here, three noted therapists of the day, Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls and Albert Ellis, conducted a brief therapy session with a client known as ‘Gloria’ to demonstrate the therapy approach that in each case they originated (Client-Centred Therapy, 1 Gestalt Therapy and Rational-Emotive Therapy 2 ). While not designed to exemplify single-session therapy, which did not exist at the time as a recognized way of delivering therapy services, these films can be viewed as examples of ‘one-off’ SST where the therapist and client work together, both knowing that this is the only therapy session that they are going to have.