Single-Session Interventions: Complementing and Extending Evidence-Based Practice

In a time of increasing demand and limited resources, diverse approaches to disseminating evidence-based mental health services are imperative to reduce the overall burden of psychopathology. Unmet treatment needs are especially notable for youth; up to 80% of U.S. youth with mental health needs receive no treatment at all, and few who successfully connect with services receive evidence-supported care. Even among those who do receive quality care, the modal number of sessions clients attend is one, raising the concern that clients may discontinue treatment before engaging in the therapeutic mechanisms that make them effective. Thus, the field of psychotherapy is in a dire need of innovative shifts in intervention research to disrupt the continuously increasing prevalence, incidence, and burden of mental illness. This brief column introduces ways in which "single-session interventions" (SSIs) for psychopathology might forward such shifts in evidence-based mental health practice.