Future-oriented therapy

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title: "Future-oriented therapy" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cognitive-therapy", "psychotherapy-by-type"] topic_path: "general/cognitive-therapy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future-oriented_therapy" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

Future-oriented therapy (FOT) and future-directed therapy (FDT) are approaches to psychotherapy that place greater emphasis on the future than on the past or present.

History

The term future-oriented therapy was first used in an article by psychologist Walter O'Connell in 1964, and then the term was used as the title of an article by psychiatrist Stanley Lesse in 1971. Psychiatrist Frederick T. Melges also used the term in his writings in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 2000s, psychiatrist Bernard Beitman, inspired in part by Melges, wrote about future-oriented formulation and about how emphasis on the future is a common factor among different approaches to psychotherapy and is a basis for integrating psychotherapies. Future-directed therapy, an intervention with a similar emphasis on the future (developed independently of the previous future-oriented therapies), was first tested by psychologist Jennice Vilhauer and colleagues in 2011, and in 2014 was the subject of a self-help book that aimed to help readers "overcome negative emotions, identify what you want in life, transform limiting beliefs, take action, live ready for success".

Lesse's approach

Stanley Lesse's approach, published in 1971, stressed the need for all future psychiatrists, psychologists, social scientists, and political scientists to understand the relationships between sociodynamics and individual psychodynamics. Lesse viewed discussion of the future as a prophylactic (preventative) technique and guided patients over a relatively brief number of sessions to consider their role in the future in order to prepare for the impending stresses and challenges.

Melges's approach

In 1972, Frederick T. Melges published a paper about a future-oriented intervention, which he referred to as FOT. A decade later he wrote a book chapter describing the intervention. Melges's FOT is based on a psychodynamic model and was intended to be an adjunctive intervention, not a treatment for psychiatric disorders. Melges described it a "useful adjunct to past- and present-oriented therapies" to help patients with issues such as low self-esteem and identity diffusion. According to Melges:

Melges proposed that the harmonization of future images, plans of action, and emotions restore a person's sense of hope and control over the future: "Thus, with hope, the personal future is not certain and fixed, but is viewed as being open, unfrozen, and full of opportunities." There were five stages to Melges's FOT treatment:

  1. Assessment and selection of patients
  2. Interpretation of vicious cycles
  3. Redecisions
  4. Self-futuring
  5. Temporal organization

In a 1983 review of Melges's book, psychiatrist Lenore Terr said that "the author must be commended for his very ambitious attempt to characterize broadly what happens to time sense in the major mental disorders", but she also noted: "Some of the author's theoretical proposals are clear and seem to be right, but unfortunately some go too far."

Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd have described how "psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema extended Melges's work on time and depression in studying the ways in which preoccupation with the past reinforces depression." Zimbardo and Boyd explained that an obsession with the past makes people less able to think about the future, according to Nolen-Hoeksema and her colleagues. "The key to relieving depression lies not in untangling the Gordian knot of the past but in accepting and planning for the uncertain future."

Other approaches

A wide range of approaches, such as future-oriented group training, future-oriented writing therapy, future-directed therapy, and others, have been developed to help people to confront the future and the uncertainties, complexities, and discontinuities implied by the future.

Zimbardo and Boyd's time perspective theory, which differentiates between several future time perspectives (general or basic, future transcendental, future negative, and future positive), has been applied in time perspective coaching and time perspective therapy.

References

References

  1. O'Connell, Walter. (April 1964). "Practicing Christianity and humanistic identification". [[Journal of Humanistic Psychology]].
  2. Lesse, Stanley. (April 1971). "Future oriented psychotherapy—a prophylactic technique". [[American Journal of Psychotherapy]].
  3. Melges, Frederick Towne. (January 1972). "Future oriented psychotherapy". [[American Journal of Psychotherapy]].
  4. Melges, Frederick Towne. (1982). "Time and the inner future: a temporal approach to psychiatric disorders". [[John Wiley & Sons]].
  5. Nunn, Kenneth P.. (1999). "The psychological and social impact of disability". [[Springer Publishing]].
  6. (2004). "Learning psychotherapy: a time-efficient, research-based, and outcome-measured psychotherapy training program". [[W. W. Norton & Company]].
  7. (2005). "Handbook of psychotherapy integration". [[Oxford University Press]].
  8. (2006). "A casebook of psychotherapy integration". [[American Psychological Association]].
  9. (December 2011). "The impact of psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, and their combination on quality of life in depression". [[Harvard Review of Psychiatry]].
  10. (February 2012). "Treating major depression by creating positive expectations for the future: a pilot study for the effectiveness of future-directed therapy (FDT) on symptom severity and quality of life". [[CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics]].
  11. Vilhauer, Jennice S.. (2014). "Think forward to thrive: how to use the mind's power of anticipation to transcend your past and transform your life". [[New World Library]].
  12. Lesse, Stanley. (1975). "Current psychiatric therapies". Grune and Stratton.
  13. Terr, Lenore C.. (October 1983). "Review of ''Time and the inner future: a temporal approach to psychiatric disorders''". [[American Journal of Orthopsychiatry]].
  14. Nolen-Hoeksema, Susan. (2008). "The time paradox: the new psychology of time that will change your life". [[Free Press (publisher).
  15. (October 2009). "Future oriented group training for suicidal patients: a randomized clinical trial". [[BMC Psychiatry]].
  16. (December 2009). "Treatment of adult post-traumatic stress disorder using a future-oriented writing therapy approach". The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist.
  17. (June 2011). "Letters from the future: suggestions for using letter writing as a school counselling intervention". Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling.
  18. (March 2013). "Improving quality of life for patients with major depressive disorder by increasing hope and positive expectations with future directed therapy (FDT)". Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience.
  19. (2015). "Time perspective theory: review, research and application: essays in honor of Philip G. Zimbardo". [[Springer-Verlag]].
  20. (2015). "Time Perspective Theory; Review, Research and Application". [[Springer-Verlag]].
  21. (2015). "Time Perspective Theory; Review, Research and Application". [[Springer-Verlag]].
  22. Kazakina, Elena. (2015). "Time Perspective Theory; Review, Research and Application". [[Springer-Verlag]].

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