Giorgio Nardone’s brief strategic therapy

Giorgio Nardone’s brief strategic therapy emerges as an alternative to long therapies that do not achieve an effective result in the short term, focusing on the present, in the here and now. It is an innovative psychotherapy model that seeks new solutions that had not been applied until then, so it focuses on the solutions rather than the problem.

Brief strategic therapy was born from the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto (MRI), an institute dedicated to the study of psychotherapy. Giorgio Nardone, Italian psychologist and therapist member of the MRI, develops brief strategic psychotherapy and is internationally recognized as the greatest exponent of the researchers who promoted the evolution of the Palo Alto School in recent years.

Nardone is the author of numerous works that have become a theoretical and practical reference, which is why Giorgio Nardone’s strategic brief therapy is considered a reference for the work of psychotherapy. For this reason, numerous professionals carry out their psychotherapeutic interventions based on this modality of psychotherapy.

Early years

Giorgio Nardone graduated from the University of Siena, where he conducts a research project on clinical psychology and psychotherapy models. It was at this time that he became interested in the work produced by the Mental Research Institute (MRI) group in Palo Alto. So much so that he obtained a training fellowship to directly observe the clinical work being carried out at MRI, under the supervision of Paul Watzlawick and John Weakland.

In 1985, he began his research project on the intervention of phobic and obsessive disorders. Thus, it began to develop innovative techniques for the treatment of phobias and obsessions, areas of pathology little explored by the traditional MRI model.

This was the first of several works he developed with Paul Waltzlawick. Based on his research, Nardone began to develop brief strategic therapy based on the work that the members of the MRI group had carried out until then.

Throughout his career, Nardone has published numerous articles in specialized journals and several books dedicated to the general public on brief strategic therapy, which have been translated into more than five languages. Her success and his involvement were so great that, in 1987, she founded the Arezzo Brief Strategic Therapy Center next to Watzlawick, a reference place in the study of psychotherapy in Europe.

Brief strategic therapy

Focuses on the here and now

In this type of therapy, only the past is used to find out what has not worked and take it as a reference for the present. which is the objective of the intervention. In this sense, the therapist focuses on the here and now and what is happening at this precise moment.

Circular causality in a certain situation

Every person is within a system together with other people, and they are in a continuous process of influences. Once this circular process is triggered, there is neither a beginning nor an end but rather a system of reciprocal influences.

In addition, Each behavior of each person has an impact on others and vice versa, hence it is considered “circular”, since it is a circle of continuous influences.

Problem-focused therapy

The therapist carries out an analysis of the solutions tried by the patient, those that he has tried before and have not worked. These attempted dysfunctional solutions are analyzed based on the theoretical basis of Watzlawick, who states that solutions that do not solve the problem maintain it.

Therefore, The objective of brief strategic therapy is to locate the solutions that do not serve as a way to find alternatives and new solutions that help eliminate the problem.

Therapy in a short period of time

It is based on the idea that, although the problem has arisen a long time ago, the treatment does not have to be long, but rather will be brief and focused on solutions.

Definitely, Psychopathologies can be persistent or cause discomfort for many years, but that fact does not mean that therapy has to be complicated. and very prolonged in time. The number of sessions varies between 1 and 40 and the average is between 6 and 20 sessions, hence it is considered “brief”.

The patient takes an active role

The patient is the one who discovers his own resources and strategies and the therapist is the one who helps him discover it.. Therefore, the idea of ​​a passive patient and active therapist leading the session is abandoned.

The therapist uses strategic communication passively to reach the point that is required in therapy so that the patient himself finds the alternatives to change.

Applications of Giorgio Nardone’s brief strategic therapy

Brief strategic therapy is mainly applied to eating disorders (ED), sexuality disorders (erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, desire disorders), mood disorders, anxiety and relational problems of families and couples.

Today there is scientific evidence that demonstrates the high effectiveness of brief strategic therapy, since it is empirically and scientifically validated (Nardone, 2015; Pietrabissa, Gibson, 2015; Nardone, Salvini, 2014; Castelnuovo et. al. 2011; Watzlawick, 2007).

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