Time-limited psychotherapy with university students

A report of the developments that stemmed from initial observations in time-limited psychotherapy with University student patients. These led to the conceptualization of the process not in terms of focal conflict but in the development of the relationship itself. Autonomy came to be seen as the central issue and a similarity was noted between the pattern of the relationship in therapy and a proposed developmental model of the growth of autonomy. Within this framework reciprocity became the focus of the relationship dimension. A case illustration is given the significance of time and separation discussed and some therapeutic and theoretical implications considered.