Therapy can be a radically life changing experience. As a part of entering the therapy relationship, it is helpful for you to understand a bit about the process you are considering entering into. Therapy typically follows these phases:
Earning your Trust
A safe emotional environment is essential for understanding and growth. In this phase I am getting to know your history as well as understand what has brought you to seek my help. I will help you define goals that feel important to you.
Delving Deeper
As you open up and explain to me your life experiences and struggles; I help you recognize things that are outside of your awareness and that are keeping you from living a more meaningful and connected life. This can be a difficult process as you begin to see things about yourself and your life that you did not recognize before. You may find yourself resisting the process and having anxiety before sessions. As a part of therapy I invite you to share these feelings with me.
Feeling Lost
As you go through this psychological transition you begin to see yourself and your life differently, you may even think therapy is making you worse. As you feel more sad, scared, or anxious than you did before you came to therapy. It is important to know that things often get worse before they get better. I remain with you as you let go of thoughts, habits, perceptions, people, or whatever is keeping you stuck.
Redefining Yourself
As you recognize what doesn’t work for you and allow yourself to grieve these ways of coping with life, your perceptions change and you can better understand yourself and your life in a new way. This frees you to see what is available to you and learn how to draw on resources within you and around you that help you move through difficult experiences with greater meaning and intention.
Keeping it up!
Having taken healthy risks inside and outside of therapy to build better support for yourself helps you cope with life in healthier ways leaving less need for the old hurtful ways of coping with life stressors. To maintain your health, you will continue to seek self-understanding by turning inward and by recruiting the help of your mate, friends, or family. At this point we begin the goodbye process. The longer you are in therapy the longer it will take to say goodbye to me. This may be the first time you will have the opportunity to experience transition in a positive supportive way. I generally leave the door open for any future support you may need from me. I look forward to you reaching this point and celebrating your growth with you!
*If during any part of this process you feel like I am not understanding you or you feel uncomfortable with my feedback, I invite you to discuss this with me so I may best help you. I will occasionally check in with you along the way about how the process is going and if you are feeling directed toward your goals.