Single Session Therapy: A Clinical Introduction to Principles and Practices

Single Session Therapy: A Clinical Introduction to Principles and Practices explores the best ways to use a Single Session Therapy (SST) mindset to better achieve therapeutic goals. This text presents comprehensive ideas and methods on how to make a single session of therapy efficient and effective with individuals, couples, and families, including those of various cultural backgrounds. It emphasizes productive mindsets and includes the following topics: concepts and methods, multi-theoretical approaches, training, various clinical problems and multicultural populations, the latest research findings, access, and implementation. Numerous clinical examples from different expert SST practitioners are presented and discussed throughout. This book is an essential reference for professionals involved in brief therapy practice, research, and teaching.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Introduction: What is SST? Chapter 2. The SST Mindset Chapter 3. The Practice of SST Chapter 4. SST Examples from the Literature: Methods and Models Chapter 5. SST Examples from My Practice Chapter 6. SST in Cross-Cultural Contexts Chapter 7. What Can We Learn from Our Internalized Clients? Chapter 8. Summary, Additional Considerations, and Next Steps Appendix A. Some SST Research Findings Appendix B. Single Session Therapy: Checklists/Exercises

About the Author :
Michael F. Hoyt, Ph.D., is a psychologist based in Mill Valley, California. He was one of the originators (with Moshe Talmon and Robert Rosenbaum) of the Single Session Therapy approach and is the author/coeditor of numerous publications on brief therapy, including Brief Therapy and Beyond (2017). He has been named a Distinguished Continuing Education Speaker by both the APA and the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors, a Contributor of Note by the Milton H. Erickson Foundation, and was awarded the prestigious APF Cummings Psyche Prize for lifetime contributions to the role of psychologists in organized healthcare.

Review :
“Michael Hoyt is clearly the best expert on the subject of this book. As an author, editor, researcher and psychotherapist he has more than 30 years of intensive experience. He is the highest authority on the topic. This is an outstanding book for people wanting to learn about SST. It is clearly helpful for a wide variety of professionals and graduate students, including psychologists, counselors, family therapists, occupational counselors and others working both in clinics and in independent practice.” Moshe Talmon, Ph.D. author of Single Session Therapy: Maximizing the Effect of the First (and Often Only) Therapeutic Encounter “This is THE book to read about SST. Hoyt is an originator and integrator par excellence, and readers both new to SST and those already practicing SST will be well rewarded. Highly recommended!” Flavio Cannistrà, Psy.D., Director, Italian Center for Single Session Therapy “An introduction to a field should always be done by an established expert so complex issues can be presented simply, clearly, in depth and in context. Dr Hoyt is such an expert, and he provides an elegant introduction to the field of Single Session Therapy (SST). Lead editor of three previous texts on SST, Hoyt’s introduction to the field fills an important gap. If you want to understand SST, and have your practice be informed by Single Session Thinking, buy it!” Jeff Young, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor Family Therapy & Systemic Practice, The Bouverie Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia; author of No Bullshit Therapy: How to Engage People Who Don’t Want to Work with You “Single Session Therapy is an essential manual for clinicians who work with clients in brief formats… Hoyt’s balance of academic rigor and clinical relevance makes this book a great resource for practitioners, researchers, and educators alike.” Jenna Bagley, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA, writing in the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy (2025) 55:293–294 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-025-09666-w