Ever wondered how therapy works?

So you think you're ready to start therapy or want to find out how it works?

Finding the right therapist for you is important, getting a feel for how they work and if you feel they are a good fit, is essential for the theraputic relationship to be established. The therapeutic relationship is the foundation for good therapy as you need to feel connected to the therapist in order to be able to do the necessary therapeutic work. Many therapists will offer an initial discovery call, this allows you to ask any questions and to talk things through before deciding if you want to go ahead. This will then usually lead to booking in an initial session, sometimes known as an assessment or introduction session. This is where you have a full session, talk in more detail about your situation and what has brought you to therapy and talk through the therapy contract.

If the therapist offers short term therapy, this may mean you need to be quite focused on what you want to achieve in that time. Long term therapy offers more flexbility to the work you can do and allows you to work with whatever arises.

Therapy sessions are typically 45/50 minutes and most therapists will offer you the same time slot each week, these can be either in person or online. Some therapists offer access to their calender so you can book in different times each week to suit. This can work well if you require more flexbility such as with shift work.

It is common to wonder how long therapy lasts and the answer is very much dependent on your needs. Some people will come to therapy with something very specific they want to work on and feel ready to stop once they feel that work is done or at a place where they feel ready to go it alone. Others are open to going with the flow and working with whatever comes up, this can mean that therapy can be longer. You may view your time in therapy as a weekly space for you offload, process your week or check in with yourself and this may be viewed as more on going. Some clients will return to therapy multiple times either to continue the initial work or as other things in arise. Essentially, when it comes to therapy, there is no one size fits all approach and you will know the right time to end or re-start therapy for you.

Therapy should not be viewed as another pressure, you do not need to know exactly what you will talk about week to week and its important to remember that sometimes you might not look forward to a session or feel like things are going well and question if you should still be going. This isn't how therapy works, it is not just for a crisis or to talk about the past, believe it or not many therapy sessions will include jokes and laughter and moments or joy or celebration.

A question to perhaps ask yourself at this point is, "what do I have to lose"? how will you know if therapy will help or offer something useful, unless you give it a try? Being open to seeing if therapy is right for might be the best gift you can offer yourself.

If you would like to book in a discovery call and chat things through, then feel free to drop me an email at spacetotalk@outlook.com