The Brief Problem Resolution Therapy (BTC) of the MRI, in its practice, dispels the concept of stereotyped psychotherapy. To be clearer, the stereotype in which attachment patterns are explored and analyzed from the roots and we develop insight and interpretations in the hope of producing a change in the here and now. Psychotherapy, commonly portrayed, is an effort done so internally and deeply that only an expert psychotherapist can decode the individual’s experiences and for the individual. This assumes that the person being ‘treated’ as well as much of the change happens in the hands of the expert with an implicit passivity. In this type of psychotherapy, there are patients, people ‘who will receive treatment,’ according to Webster’s Dictionary.
This is a fundamental difference between traditional therapy and the interactional model of brief therapy. In the Brief Problem Resolution Therapy model, clients are seen as capable and as such, actively participate in the construction of a different life for themselves; a life in which the problem is no longer the main villain. The general framework is that the therapist empowers the client through minimal imposition, both of diagnostic language and by unearthing the intrapsychic and historical excursions. Of course, these things sometimes occur but serve to understand the client’s position, values, and motivations, rather than focusing on psychological constructs.
More recently, the mindfulness and social justice movements have created a shift by focusing on personal power, through the practice of mindfulness with intentional focus on a non-judgmental focus and more community responsibility. This network of personal and community responsibility is a small shift from what occurred in the past, but the frame of reference is still internal and continues to be a model that maintains a linear view of cause and effect, instead of a circular causality model. The distinction, in practical terms, is that the person we identify as the one needing attention, is different from the person that brief therapists will work with: often the parents of a problem-teen, instead of with the teens themselves or we will work with them separately and not necessarily in the same sessions.
This shift is a major change in how we perceive the reality of experience and therefore, what we consider therapeutic. We consider therapy as a change in behavioral patterns and reach the internal experience and nervous system indirectly, but profoundly. In Brief Problem Resolution Therapy, the moving pieces we see are related to the problem, the patterns contributing to the problem or its resolution. By definition, this is an externalization model, interactional and client-centered. There is no normative framework to use: we enter the client’s world and work with their resources, building at their pace.
The mindfulness movement is broader and less pathological than traditional therapy in how it views the interweaving of people and their problems. Historically, the mindfulness-based life model centered on contextual flexibility that paid attention to relational realities, similar to the postmodern lens. However, it is seemingly being borrowed by pop culture and Western individualistic society; it has lent itself to a perspective that feelings and internal experience should be seen as the highest authenticity, more trustworthy and therefore more actionable. Often, when people come to therapy after a strong investment in personal discovery, the realities of maintaining a relationship seem to contradict the findings of internal discovery. The beauty is that each of the two interconnected areas of relationship (internal and external) need not be separated from one another.
As a brief therapist, I am interested in hearing about the context in which the problems are constructed, the basic descriptions of the person(s) who come to therapy, what they see happening, what they do, and how they, unintentionally, contribute to these events in their lives. I want to know what they see as problematic and how they become entangled in the problem. I take the necessary time to obtain a video of the interactional language they use, clues of what is important to them and what would add meaning/well-being to their lives. I also pay attention to what would be “good enough,” a little better than what is happening now to calibrate how much of the problem is a matter of chasing their own tails ineffectively. These questions themselves help the person discover what they want to “put on the table,” helping them evaluate/define what is achievable and how much effort it will require.
I want to dispel the notion that Brief Therapy is fast: it will move at the pace the client feels comfortable with. It is faster because of all the doors the therapist does not open and is therefore more focused on the here/now and on implementing change. The idea is that how we collect the necessary information facilitates making change concrete. We remain focused on what is most important to the client and align the necessary things to create a path forward. This involves meeting the clients where they are, with what skills they already have.
From this place, we build a holistic vision: an interaction between the therapist and client that moves away from the expert and towards a conversation in which most people operate/function when they are focused and with the hope of solving a problem, at least partially. It is the mode we find ourselves in when we are about to leave the door and know where we are going and what we need to bring with us to go to work. This is the mode in which Brief Problem Resolution Therapy builds. The discovered emotions, the complaint, and the ways found to improve the internal experience, in this model of brief therapy, is a spontaneous process that emerges much more easily when the pieces are reordered in a way that allows movement. Although we are generally accused of not taking emotions into account, they are, of course, part of this process.
MRI’s Brief Problem Resolution Therapy dispels the notion that one needs to dig deep to heal. We practice precision, simplicity, and while working from a non-normative and non-pathological model, we do not believe that true reality exists within us. Brief therapy weaves an image so encompassing that the person and their inner truth have led to acceptance. Emotional experiences begin to move more easily as the behavior and belief system also start to change. In short, we reach the mind, we reach the body because we make things keep moving, creating a map the person hadn’t been able to reach and which caused them pain. We navigate routes that get the client moving in the direction most desired by themselves. This model defines the reality of helping the client who asks for help.
By Esther Krohner, MFT Brief Therapy Center
