Unpacking ‘Goal’ Speak

Why don’t we use 'goal speak' in Single Session Therapy?

The migration away from goal setting and goal speak in Single-Session Therapy (SST) can seem counterintuitive. SST embraces ‘focus’, so why wouldn’t we set a goal with participants? A relational ethics lens invites us to consider what might be the effects of this tradition, especially when we might not see the participant again? Goal speak, as an example of Capitalism infiltrating the therapeutic process, risks privileging notions of productivity, individualism, and self-optimization. In ‘Brief Narrative Practices in Single-Session Therapy’, I explore the implications of this and share how we resist Capitalistic ways of structuring our time together as a means to open a wide horizon of possibility.