Therapist’s Experience, Training, and Skill in Brief Therapy: A Bicoastal Survey

California and Massachusetts psychologists (N = 850, 58% response rate) returned a questionnaire to ascertain clinicians' brief-therapy experience, training, self-assessed skill, and attitude. Results indicate respondents spend a considerable portion (40%) of their clinical time doing brief therapy. A disturbing finding is that one-third of those presently doing brief therapy reported that they had received little or no training in brief-therapy theory or techniques. Self-rated skill in brief therapy was found to be best predicted by a combination of one's experience, training, and attitude. We conclude that, while the number of therapists using brief therapy has increased rapidly and apparently will continue to increase due to the expansion of managed health care, many psychologists do not have adequate training to use brief therapy successfully. Implications of this finding in terms of its potentially harmful effects and suggestions for future training are discussed.