Common characteristics of these approaches include time management, defined focus, circumscribed goals, active therapist participation, rapid assessment, prompt intervention, an awareness of unconscious processes, and techniques that quickly foster a strong alliance with the client.

This concise volume focuses largely on one popular model in particular: time-limited dynamic psychotherapy (TLDP). TLDP is an integrative approach that uses techniques from attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, affective-experiential learning, and systems orientations to help clients with long-standing, dysfunctional ways of relating to others. The author explores this integrative, culturally-sensitive approach, its theory, history, the therapy process, primary change mechanisms, empirical basis, and future developments.

This revised edition includes updated case examples, as well as a wealth of new research findings -- including process-outcome studies -- that affirm treatment effectiveness, explain how alliance ruptures are repaired, and new research on the "reconsolidation process" that demonstrates how sudden, dramatic change happens in brief dynamic therapy.