This immensely powerful and practical book is about utilising the power of expectation in working with clients. It is the author's contention that creating an environment where the client expects to change is the foundation of doing effective very brief therapy. His own private practice is one where he rarely sees clients more than one or two times. Clients know in advance that this is the way that he works, and so their expectation is that during this session they are going to get down to the hard stuff, and resolve their concerns insofar as it is possible. This means working as if each session were the last one. This book is about all of the things that are designed to work in a single-session mode. This is not to say that some clients will need many more sessions but creating the expectation that each session will be the last creates an impetus towards change that is vital in the therapeutic process.

After presenting the basic outline of this approach, the book details (chapter by chapter) the specific approaches that the author finds most useful in his work. These include Ericksonian hypnosis and psychotherapy, solution-focused brief therapy, reframing, Rossi's fail-safe methods, and ideomotor signalling. In addition, metaphor, guided metaphor, and narrative therapy are utilized, as well as many other methods.

Battino has put in one place a collection of rapid and effective approaches to doing therapy. The emphasis is on the expectation of both the client and the therapist that rapid, lasting change is possible.