Time is of the essence: a selective review of the fall and rise of brief therapy research

For compelling reasons of equity and the advance of public health, brief psychotherapy has become the dominant format in both practice and research. One consequence of this is the apparent decline of a distinct stream of brief therapy research. However, much of the agenda formerly identified with that research stream is of increasing importance to the field. Time is indeed of the essence in current psychotherapy research. For example, factors conducive to the time efficiency of brief psychodynamic therapy have been described recently. The important question ‘How much therapy is enough?’ has been addressed by studies inspired by the dose-response analysis of Howard and colleagues. The value of ultra-brief interventions has been examined. These issues are considered in a selective review, drawing in particular on the work of the Sheffield/Leeds psychotherapy of depression research group. This research treats the number of treatment sessions as an independent variable, thereby providing a causal analysis of the dose-response relationship over a range from two to 16 sessions, illuminated by a comparative analysis of change processes in treatments of different durations. Its results enable some specification of the extent and nature of incremental benefit derived from additional sessions in the psychotherapy of depression.

Music education research in Australia - 2007

Summarises current music research in Australia such as the establishment of the Bibliography of Australian Music Education Research (BAMER) database, conferences held by the Australian Society for Music Education, and recently completed post-graduate research studies in music education (includes some abstracts).

Music education research in Australia - 2006

This article summaries some research on music education in Australia. During 2006, the Bibliography of Australian Music Education Research (BAMER) database has undergone a major revision with the addition of several newly-located research studies and the updating of existing inaccurate or incomplete entries. The 27th World Conference of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) was held at the Kuala Lumpur Conference Centre in Malaysia from 16 to 21 July and was attended by several Australian delegates. Forthcoming conferences are listed.