Ep. 9/ What to Expect From Therapy
What to Expect From Therapy
By: Courtney Wischover, LPC
My understanding of what counseling was when I attended myself for the first time versus the reality of what it was were vastly different. The realization that I had no idea what to actually expect from therapy sat with me until I became a clinician myself and I saw the same moment of awareness happen for my clients. I started to think about how many faces I saw realize that they didn’t know what they signed up for, which led me to think about all of the faces I may never see because they had that insight before even calling my office. That uncertainty can be scary, even enough to keep you from taking that risk.
I came on the Nest Podcast to talk about exactly this, what to expect from therapy, so in this I will address some major points that came through my conversation with Alex.
What you need to know:
The first call:
If you are leaving a message, less can be more! We only need to know your name and a good call back number. Sometimes a time frame reference for when to call back can help get you connected and reduce phone tag.
Once connected to someone, briefly (a sentence or two) on what you’re wanting to work on (stress, difficult emotions, change, etc), any other preferences you may have, and then how you want to address payment (insurance or private pay).
Preferences can be things such as: counselor gender, day of the week, time of day seen, frequency, past experience, or anything else important to you!
You will set up your first appointment and the counselor may ask you to fill out paperwork prior to coming in or inform you of those steps leading into your appointment.
The first session(s) (big picture information gathering):
The first 1-3 sessions can be more formal as we gather information similar to a doctor, to fulfill our insurance and documentation needs!
There will be a lot of questions but please know that you are not required to share anything you are not comfortable with yet or have to go into great detail as we are trying to get a lay of the land and can dig deeper in the future.
This is your chance to get a feel for your counselor and if you feel they’re an appropriate fit for you!
The in between sessions:
You will be building rapport, which means focusing on trust, respect, and vulnerability, to deepen the relationship and feel more comfortable in discussing your challenges and goals.
You and your counselor will be working towards the goals you identified at the start of treatment and maybe even new ones as new or different challenges arise.
How you approach this will depend on a couple things: the roles we take/establish in our sessions, the modality or approach of the counselor, and the pace/willingness of you the client.
Termination:
This can be gradual or sudden situation depending, we get more into this on the podcast with different scenarios.
An ideal gradual step down would look like spreading out sessions from weekly, to biweekly, to monthly and so on and then having a conversation about termination and coming back as needed.
Life happens and sometimes we have to stop suddenly so communication is key!
Sometimes professionally we as counselors can hit our own competency or ethical limitations and may need to communicate with you about appropriate steps and hand off or transition of care as well.
