I find it is not only possible but imperative, especially in short-term counseling, that we start solving problems in the very first session.
—Jim Smith

Short-term counseling may be short, but it's not necessarily simple.

Jenny's daughter was getting married, and Jenny wasn't happy. Of course, Jenny recognized that her daughter Lynn, who was in her late twenties, was old enough to make her own decisions. Jenny also knew that Lynn was marrying a Christian young man with a good career. But Jenny still wasn't happy.

For one thing, Lynn had announced that the wedding would take place in just two months. That gave Jenny hardly any time to plan. She had always dreamed of Lynn's wedding as the event that would make everyone forget Prince Charles and Lady Di—a thousand guests, a lavish reception at the finest country club in Dallas. But with the event only two months away, there was no time to plan the wedding of Jenny's dreams. The dream was scaled down to a backyard wedding with 300 guests.

Moreover, ...