New Year, healthier version of you. Will this include going to therapy?
Engaging the services of a therapist can be a transformative and life-altering experience.
Now that you have made this commitment, let’s help you get the most from this experience.
Here are a few strategies to help you get the best out of therapy:
Identify your goals: do you want help managing your anxiety? Do you want to address challenges in your relationship with your partner or your family? Are you struggling with low mood?
While you can change your goals once you are in therapy, having a goal in mind helps you and your therapist create a treatment plan. Having a goal in mind also helps you select the right therapist as not every therapist has the experience/training to work with every issue.
Make the commitment: therapy can be time consuming, expensive & emotionally draining. But it can be worth every minute, every dollar & every tear. Therapy only works if you show up regularly and participate fully. Make appointments at regular intervals (weekly or biweekly), do the homework, give your therapist feedback about whether this is helping & be willing to make changes in your life based on what you discuss in session.
Check in with yourself and others: after every few sessions, ask yourself what is different? Are you thinking differently? Are you doing something differently? Do you feel differently? If you don’t notice any change, ask people you trust for what they see in you. Knowing that you are making progress will encourage you to keep going!
Therapy can change your life. It can help you manage your anxiety, feel more confident, be more assertive and reduce your stress. It will also require you to talk about difficult things, to make changes that are hard and it will bring you to tears on occasion.
But if you show up and make the commitment to yourself, therapy can be the best gift you give to yourself.
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