Once therapist and client are focused on investigating solutions rather than problems, therapy inevitably becomes brief—sometimes only one session.

Engaging cases, often with surprising twists, illustrate this practice-based theory of brief therapy with a wide range of complaints. Some of these, such as drug addiction or severe marital record, previously have been thought to be too "difficult" for brief therapy. however, as de Shazer shoes time and again, once therapist and client together discover "what works," obstacles in the pathway to solutions disappear.

An innovation is de Shazer's computer analysis of therapy sessions, which provides a map for analyzing situations and finding solutions. Pieces of the computer program are highlighted with individual cases, enabling the reader to move easily from the map to the territory and back again.

Both theoretically stimulating and clinically sound, de Shazer's investigations turns up clues with the potential to revolutionize the way psychotherapy is thought about and practiced.