This study reports the potential of brief psychotherapy to contribute to the field of occupational mental health. A male in his thirties who suffers from occupational maladjustment and depression underwent 8 counseling sessions. It was not in terms of his occupational problems or mental symptoms but of changing behavior habits in his life scene outside the workplace that these sessions proceeded. Finally, we discussed following contents: (1) selecting themes according to the client and workplace condition, (2) utilizing client’s resources with therapeutic conversation, (3) potential of brief psychotherapy to contribute to the field of occupational mental health.

We aimed to examine the effect of mental imagery on intervention using the time machine question along with the influence of an intervention on emotional state. We examined emotional states before and after the intervention task. The scores on the positive emotion scale were significantly higher after the intervention. The negative emotion scale scores were significantly lower after the intervention. We then compared the emotional changes between the high and low imagery ability groups. We found that the emotional changes before and after the intervention were different between the ability groups. These results suggested that the intervention involving imagining one’s future via the time machine question directly influenced individuals’ emotional states.