This article critiques short-term, linear approaches to psychotherapy and raises fundamental questions about the claims for their effectiveness. The article delineates the inherent weaknesses of short-term, linear approaches; summarizes a recent meta-analysis that challenges their effectiveness; and summarizes research showing they are less effective than longer-term, traditional psychotherapy. The author suggests that psychologists who are drawn to short-term, linear approaches embed these in a broader, more complex theoretical framework such as that which humanistic-existential psychology provides.
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