How is therapy effective when you (typically) only talk for one hour per week?
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Therapists are not supposed to magically fix your life by themselves. In order for therapy to work the patient has to be willing to listen to the therapist and apply what they discuss on their daily lives. It’s a long process and some times even if the therapist is applying their training right it might still not work, because some people work better with some therapists and not so much with others.
What they do is help the patient process their emotions and guide them to find ways to better deal with them, as well as give them a different perspective towards those emotions. In time, and if the patient is willing to make changes, there’s progress in how the patient perceives their emotions and how they deal with them. Other times though patients are stubborn, and are expecting the therapist to give them some magical solution to their problems, while being unwilling to change anything about their lives and how they think, at which point the sessions are just pointless.
It’s not effective except insofar as you get useful advice that makes you change your life. Most therapists are confused people who go into deep debt for their degree and must provide counseling to stay afloat, even if their own life is terrible. You cannot actually change your thinking process consciously despite what people tell you
Therapists are not supposed to magically fix your life by themselves. In order for therapy to work the patient has to be willing to listen to the therapist and apply what they discuss on their daily lives. It’s a long process and some times even if the therapist is applying their training right it might still not work, because some people work better with some therapists and not so much with others.
What they do is help the patient process their emotions and guide them to find ways to better deal with them, as well as give them a different perspective towards those emotions. In time, and if the patient is willing to make changes, there’s progress in how the patient perceives their emotions and how they deal with them. Other times though patients are stubborn, and are expecting the therapist to give them some magical solution to their problems, while being unwilling to change anything about their lives and how they think, at which point the sessions are just pointless.
You brush your teeth about an hour a week, how’s that effective?
Regular maintenance is good for our physical health as it is for our mental health. We don’t need to do one good thing all day to take care of ourselves, you just do a little to keep yourself in check.
Therapists are not supposed to magically fix your life by themselves. In order for therapy to work the patient has to be willing to listen to the therapist and apply what they discuss on their daily lives. It’s a long process and some times even if the therapist is applying their training right it might still not work, because some people work better with some therapists and not so much with others.
What they do is help the patient process their emotions and guide them to find ways to better deal with them, as well as give them a different perspective towards those emotions. In time, and if the patient is willing to make changes, there’s progress in how the patient perceives their emotions and how they deal with them. Other times though patients are stubborn, and are expecting the therapist to give them some magical solution to their problems, while being unwilling to change anything about their lives and how they think, at which point the sessions are just pointless.
You brush your teeth about an hour a week, how’s that effective?
Regular maintenance is good for our physical health as it is for our mental health. We don’t need to do one good thing all day to take care of ourselves, you just do a little to keep yourself in check.
Therapy is a tool *we* use. So I tell my therapist what I’m struggling with and what I want to change. She helps me figure out what makes most sense for me to work on first, and she gives me exercises or strategies (or both) I can use to try to make the progress I’m trying to make.
One of the most helpful things I learned in therapy was that I’m responsible for my choices – in relationships, at work, etc. When I’m being 100% responsible for me, I don’t struggle with resentment, for example. I get to feel more competent and therefore more confident. I don’t have anxiety that others “won’t come through,” anymore. And that *wasn’t* what I went for, lol. It was super important to figure that out before I could address the other stuff I wanted to change. I went in wanting everyone else to change, and therapy can’t do that.
Tl;dr: The most important work happens between sessions.
Therapy is a tool *we* use. So I tell my therapist what I’m struggling with and what I want to change. She helps me figure out what makes most sense for me to work on first, and she gives me exercises or strategies (or both) I can use to try to make the progress I’m trying to make.
One of the most helpful things I learned in therapy was that I’m responsible for my choices – in relationships, at work, etc. When I’m being 100% responsible for me, I don’t struggle with resentment, for example. I get to feel more competent and therefore more confident. I don’t have anxiety that others “won’t come through,” anymore. And that *wasn’t* what I went for, lol. It was super important to figure that out before I could address the other stuff I wanted to change. I went in wanting everyone else to change, and therapy can’t do that.
Tl;dr: The most important work happens between sessions.
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