The author, and individual and group therapist, joins a marital and family therapist to develop a model for brief treatment. Taking a developmental approach to treatment, the authors assume patients may well return to their therapists, at different times during theri lives, as new life stages bring with them novel stresses and problems. In the authors' view, neither traditional long-term treatment nor brief therapy defined as a certain number of hours adequately grasps a patient's evolving clinical needs.