Single session therapy (SST) is a form of psychotherapy that has been researched and practiced internationally since the 1980s. More recently it has been widely employed from the therapeutic modality of narrative therapy - more commonly known as brief narrative single session therapy. Narrative therapy - an internationally practiced psychotherapy in its own right - operates from a blending of social constructionist and Foucauldian/poststructural theory where therapists support clients to co-construct preferred identities amidst powerful discourses which constrain this process. While the co-construction of client-preferred identity is multilayered, studies within this field have historically leaned on social constructionist explanations of how this process occurs at the expense of the Foucauldian/poststructural perspective. This study blends these two perspectives, both conceptually and methodologically, to understand how client-preferred identity co-construction occurs in brief narrative single session therapy. From the social constructionist perspective, the preferred identity that narrative therapy seeks to foreground is viewed as something that is constructed within the session between the client and therapist rather than something that is fully formed prior to the session’s start. Yet, from the Foucauldian/poststructural perspective this process also occurs within the culturally available discourses that are afforded to us. To highlight both perspectives I conducted a hybrid discourse analysis that included a macro-focused Foucauldian discourse analysis and a micro-focused element of discursive psychology, on five appointment-based sessions of brief narrative single session therapy. Immediately following the recording of each session clients and therapists filled out separate post-session questionnaires to share their impressions and experiences of these single sessions. The results of this study present rich examples of how working practitioners trained in brief narrative single session therapy support clients in the co-construction of preferred identities in the context of constraining cultural discourses. In addition, alternative discourses that supported the work of client-preferred identity co-construction based within these sessions, and found within the fields of narrative therapy and the brief therapy movement, were identified. Comments from participant post-session questionnaires offer supplementary perspectives that add greater context to the findings from my analysis of sessions. Implications for the training, practice, and study of brief narrative single session therapy are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to explore how counselling teams draw on narrative therapy during intersession break consultations in walk-in counselling. Walk-in counselling is a form of single-session therapy (SST) that allows an individual, couple, or family to meet with a counsellor on a drop-in basis. Walk-in counselling clinics are becoming increasingly popular in Canada and globally, with a particularly high number operating in Ontario. Sessions in walk-in counselling typically involve a break partway through, during which the counsellor meets with a team of colleagues for a brief consultation; this is referred to as the “intersession break”. Narrative therapy is a postmodern therapeutic approach commonly used in walk-in counselling. Data collection occurred at two Ontarian walk-in counselling clinics and involved recording and transcribing a total of six intersession break consultations. Transcripts were examined using discourse analysis as a methodological approach. My analysis process identified four conversational practices counselling teams engaged in that drew on various aspects of narrative therapy theory. These practices are as follows: (a) counsellors engaging in externalization, (b) counsellors orienting to possible alternative narratives, (c) counsellors centring the person visiting the clinic, and (d) counsellors demonstrating tentativeness. This research is most directly relevant to counsellors working in walk-in counselling clinics and agencies offering SST involving intersession breaks. For mental health practitioners interested in postmodern therapeutic approaches, it provides a detailed account of how narrative therapy is being applied within a particular context. Finally, it may be of interest to people accessing walk-in counselling services who are curious about intersession break processes.

Various community-based mental health and family agencies offer walk-in counselling services, where clients are provided with immediate access to a single session of brief therapy without appointments or referrals. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of single-session therapy (SST) delivered within walk-in counselling clinics. This type of service delivery model has been found to be helpful for parents, who experience decreased hopelessness and psychological distress by increasing their confidence about their parenting. The purpose of this multiple case study was to investigate how parents perceived their parenting self-efficacy over time following a virtual single-session therapy at a children's mental health centre. Additionally, this study explored how parents perceived their overall experience utilizing this type of service delivery model. Eight mothers participated in a retrospective individual interview. Findings indicate that virtual SST provided parents with greater parental knowledge and concrete collaborative problem-solving strategies that improved parent-child interactions. Further, the emotional support received at the SST reduced parents' distress while increasing hopefulness in the parenting role. In addition, parents valued the accessibility and convenience of the virtual option. Overall, the findings of this study provide evidence that virtual SST can be beneficial for parents and can foster parental self-efficacy.

In response to the growing awareness of the issue of accessibility to mental health services (World Health Organization, 2013), single session therapy (SST) has been implemented in various settings throughout the world. (Hoyt &Talmon, 2014b; Miller, 2008; Miller & Slive, 2004; Talmon, 2014). Although there has been much advancement in the knowledge and application of SST, an understanding of therapist-client interactional patterns that enfold in SST is extremely scarce. In this study, I investigated how therapists collaboratively improved the talk in SST turn by turn in such a way that promoted therapeutic improvement. I utilized conversation analysis (Sacks et al., 1974) to analyze a video-recording of a SST consultation within a single instrumental case study format (Stake, 2005). The findings of this study provide an interactional understanding of the collaborative practice, valued in SST literature (e.g., Campbell, 2012; Miller & Slive, 2004; Slive et al., 2008). Specifically, the therapists’ collaborative manner is exemplified in how the therapists oriented to the moment-to-moment interaction with the client within and across various interactional practices to coordinate their interaction, form and maintain the therapeutic relationship with the client, invite therapeutic change, and negotiate advice with the client. The findings of this study offer SST therapists and supervisors a potential interactional repertoire that they can utilize in their SST consultations and SST trainings. This study also presents a method of psychotherapy research that can address the research-practice gap (Strong & Gale, 2013).