​Every day we haven’t evolved as human beings, is a wasted day – Lao Tzu

The goal of Brief Strategic Psychotherapy is to promote a desirable change. From a dysfunctional balance – the balance of the problem – we get to build a new, more appropriate, balance of the solution. It all starts with our instinctive reactions to the reality we perceive; it all starts with emotions. Sometimes these are blocked and won't unlock naturally and our wellbeing is damaged as a result.

Brief Strategic Psychotherapy has, over time, evolved from the study of psychological problems, to the study of therapeutic solutions and how they are effective. These interventions have been found successful for a wide range of psychopathological issues with an average 88% success rate.

At the core of the work lies the concept of attempted solutions. Most psychological issues are not created by simple and specific causes but developed over time through the use and reiteration of negative, dysfunctional strategies. These behaviours, coupled with the strong belief that they will eventually solve our problems are, in fact, maintaining the issues and making them worse.

Through the use of suggestive, evocative language, strategic intervention guides the client to the identification of correct strategies to unblock their emotional balance. The client will eventually begin to perceive reality in a new, more functional way and build towards desirable, long-lasting, change.

This re-organisation of perception is the main leverage of therapeutic change. With a new perception it is possible to change behaviours and unblock stuck mechanisms and reactions.

In my own work as a brief strategic therapist I’ve worked with a wide variety of problems. One example: a client with a severe case of bulimia with a 15 year long established symptom of vomiting, has been resolved within few sessions with the use of the core technique of waiting.

The client had established a vomiting routine every time she felt under an extreme amount of daily stress and overwhelmed by her insecurities; she had not been able to control this reaction for many years. Acknowledging her difficulty I haven’t tried to go in the direction of what had been already tried  - self-control – allowing her to continue her ritual every time she needed to, with one single deviation from the usual programme. Once she had binged she had to sit and wait for an hour before going to vomit. She could still go on with the same ritual but she was requested to wait for an hour before completing it. The idea of all the food remaining inside her body for so long stopped her even creating situations where she would normally binge. The waiting had ruined the whole ritual itself.

Of course there is work to do after these few sessions, to establish the change and turn it into a satisfactory and stable new balance. After these few sessions the work becomes more explanatory and goes beyond the symptom to re-invent a new perception of reality.

Creativity and flexibility play a big role in Brief Strategic Psychotherapy, which makes it appropriate for business-coaching and strategic problem solving, as well as therapy.