As the holiday season approached in 2025, Julie Hart found herself trapped in a cycle of overthinking. Years of wrestling with a persistent issue had left her second-guessing every decision and dwelling on past choices throughout each day.
While traditional weekly therapy seemed like an option, Hart chose to explore single-session counseling instead. This approach offered just one hour to address her concerns, and the results exceeded her expectations.
“It helped me get unstuck, is how I would describe it, in a very positive, meaningful and effective way,” said Hart, who lives in Springfield, Virginia.
Mental health professionals report that Hart represents a growing trend of individuals choosing focused, one-time counseling over the extended commitment typically associated with conventional therapy.
This therapeutic approach delivers exactly what its name suggests: a single hour-long meeting where a mental health professional guides clients toward practical solutions for specific challenges. The goal isn’t to eliminate problems entirely, but to equip people with useful techniques for managing them.
“Those strategies made all kinds of sense,” Hart explained. “But you can’t identify them when you’re in it.”
While this concept isn’t revolutionary—even Sigmund Freud provided such services—its popularity has surged as mental health care access becomes increasingly challenging, according to Jessica Schleider, a psychology professor at Northwestern University who directs the Lab for Scalable Mental Health.
Traditional therapy costs have climbed to hundreds of dollars monthly, and even individuals with insurance coverage or financial means face extensive waiting periods for appointments.
“Even if we doubled miraculously the number of trained mental health professionals overnight, we still wouldn’t come anywhere close to meeting the need for mental health support,” Schleider explained.
Additional obstacles include work schedules that prevent people from attending regular weekly appointments.
Statistics reveal that most therapy clients attend only one session anyway, as many begin treatment but don’t return for follow-up visits, Schleider noted.
“It’s a really elegant solution to get people support they need at the moment that need arises,” she said.
Sharon Thomas, a psychologist who oversees single-session therapy at Washington, D.C.’s Ross Center, emphasizes that both therapist and client begin with clear expectations: “That the client will be able to have meaningful change in their life, and that we’ll see an improvement in both their self-efficacy and a decline in their symptoms in just one visit.”
Instead of conducting comprehensive evaluations of a client’s history and current situation, therapists concentrate on one particular issue. Sessions conclude with clients receiving written action plans outlining steps to address their concerns.
“Not everyone wants to discuss childhood trauma,” Thomas noted. “It’s very much focused on what the client wants to focus on in that moment.”
Arnold Slive, a psychology professor at Our Lady of the Lake University in Texas who helped establish walk-in single-session therapy centers in Canada during the 1990s, believes most people can gain value from this approach. Whether dealing with immediate stressors like workplace conflicts or ongoing issues such as anxiety, clients can find relief.
Slive emphasizes that therapists must still evaluate suicide risk, and individuals with severe mental health conditions may require traditional therapy or medication.
“It’s not meant to replace all those other things that mental health professionals do, but it can help people feel better,” Slive said.
This approach assumes every client possesses inherent strengths to tackle their problems. Single sessions often appeal to people who question whether conventional therapy suits their needs.
“It’s like putting a toe in the water,” Slive described.
Research supporting single-session interventions has expanded significantly, with Schleider noting that studies have “blossomed in the past five or 10 years to where this has become a more well-established form of mental health support.”
Her laboratory analyzed 415 clinical trials and discovered that single-session methods typically decreased mental health symptoms across various conditions, including depression and anxiety, for people of all ages.
Months after her session, Hart continues to feel improvement and reports increased confidence knowing she can return if needed.
“I left feeling so optimistic,” Hart said.
