Single-session Narrative Therapy with university students: Possibilities and limits

• Grant number: 22/14358-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2023
• End date: April 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Psychological Treatment and Prevention
• Principal Investigator: Laura Vilela e Souza
• Grantee: Rafaella Andrade Vivenzio
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

University students are considered a vulnerable group to the development of anxiety, depression and stress. Along with this, the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the problems related to mental health, as it impacted the settings of society and affected higher education. Among the protection and prevention strategies to mitigate such suffering, psychological care services in early adulthood apparenttly improve the development of social and emotional skills and a propensity to continue studies. In this context, brief therapeutic care, such as Single-session Narrative Therapy (SSNT), becomes an important option to be considered due to its cost-effectiveness, ease of access and emphasis on client protagonism. Considering this aspect, added to the identification of the absence of studies on SSNT in Brazil and on its use in the university population, in addition to the need to think of ways to expand the democratization of access to Brazilian mental health services, the objective of this research it is to understand the production of meanings about the practice of SSNT with clients and therapists. For that, attendances of university students will be carried out and recorded in the SSNT modality within the scope of a Brazilian public university. Follow-up interviews will also be carried out with these university students. From the social constructionist perspective of research as an intervention, the researcher of this project will occupy the position of therapist and will participate in the production of meanings about (and in) practice through field diary notes. Transcripts of care sessions, follow-up interviews and field diary records will be taken as discursive practices from which it will be possible to analyze the meanings produced about SSNT in terms of its effects on this population.