What should I expect from therapy?

For instance, some therapists focus on spending a lot of time listening and nodding, maybe making a comment here and there to help clients feel heard and to help clients clarify their feelings. 

Some therapists are more focused on helping clients solve problems or develop new strategies.

The type of therapy I use falls mostly into this second category. 

• We will spend a lot of time talking about the issues that have brought you to counseling, how these issues impact your life right now, and how they make sense in the context of your life history.
• I will want to hear from you about what is going on, and I will probably have a lot of questions! 
• We will also talk about the strengths you already possess and how to use them to help you grow. We will talk about your goals, including what makes sense to get there. That includes talking about what has worked well for you and what hasn’t worked as well in your life. It may also include what has and has not worked for you in past therapy, if this applies.
• The ultimate goal is to get you to the place where you are ready to fire me! We want you to become your own therapist, your own coach, your own mentor. My job is to give you the tools to get you there.

The clients who improve the most are the ones who are willing to put in time between sessions trying out the strategies we discuss in session.

• This doesn’t require hours of homework! But …
• We will usually set an action plan each week, some strategy or technique you can try out between sessions. This may involve reading or using a workbook that many of my clients have found helpful.
• During most sessions, we will check in on your life in general, review the strategies we discussed in our last session, then talk about some new strategies. 
• I will bring information to each session about different ways to understand your challenges.

I always encourage my clients to feel that they can speak up about what is working and what isn’t working for them.

If there is something I am doing that doesn’t work for you, please feel free to speak up! 

This gives us a chance to get to know each other and formulate a plan that works for you … then build some momentum toward your healing process.