Three Tips for Therapy
by Sara Malcom
1. Be Open and Honest
Opening up and being vulnerable isn’t always easy. From a therapist’s perspective, initially what people share as their “presenting concern” or reason for coming to therapy, is not always their main concern. This is normal. Some clients take a few sessions to feel comfortable, in order to share what is really going on. Building a therapeutic relationship takes time, but once you feel safe and ready, it’s helpful to be honest about the issues you are dealing with so you can use the therapy session most effectively and work towards positive solutions. Your therapist offers an unbiased and nonjudgmental perspective. You are paying for this time and you want to get the most out of it.
2. Don’t try to impress your therapist
Going to therapy is not the same as going to coffee with a friend. Your therapist is not there to rate you on a scale of 1-10 of “How good of a human am I”. No! So try not to overthink.
You are sitting with a trained mental health professional, someone who has undivided attention for you, which allows for a therapeutic relationship to form, and for someone to see your situation from an unbiased perspective. They are not going to judge you or impose their values, beliefs, or attitudes on you.
3. Have optimistic yet realistic expectations
A common misconception in therapy is that you will be told what you should do about your situation. That is not what happens in the therapy process. A therapist will help you develop more self awareness and insight to explore your own conclusions/options. You will not walk out of a therapy session with with everything resolved in an hour. Realistically, healing takes time. The personal “work” you do in between sessions is what makes all the difference. My first therapist told me this, “Sara, it may seem like things get worse, before they ever get better.” How true was that. Therapy helps you take a much deeper look into your life, your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, so everything comes to the surface which may have been ignored for awhile or numbed by other things. Healing is a journey, not a race.