Thinking of seeing a therapist for the first time? You may well be wondering what the process entails when seeing a therapist, especially if you have had no prior experience of seeking help. There might also be some questions about which tools and techniques will be employed and how long the process will take.
A lot of therapists will have had their own personal therapy journey either through their own life journey, or as part of an accreditation process in their professional training. Most will, therefore, know exactly what it feels like to be in the client seat and, therefore, should be able to help put you at ease. A reasonable question for any prospective therapist is whether they have had their own personal therapy journey or not.
Accreditation
The particular training of your therapist might not seem important when you are first seeking help. They might all seem like much the same especially when you scroll through a plethora of online profiles and look at an array of seemingly similar qualifications.
It is worth checking if your therapist is professionally accredited and how one can become accredited with that body. Some associate memberships of international bodies, for instance, allow persons interested in having a “connection” with others in the natural healing world, that have no relative training. The internet is full of people advertising counselling and psychotherapy services without having any formal qualifications in the field.
Counselling and psychotherapy are not protected titles in the UK, unlike clinical psychology and arts therapists, so it is important to check that someone is professionally accredited by a UK accreditation body. The full list of protected titles held by the Health & Care Professions Council can be found here. This will go some way to safeguard your choice of therapist since professional accreditation will have a degree of checks and balances such as meeting certain minimum clinical and academic requirements as well as the need to be in clinical supervision and meeting standards for continuing professional development (cpd).
How regular?
The constancy of therapy provides for a regular number of sessions. You want to be seeing your therapist regular enough to be able to remember what you discussed at the previous session. You might also need time to reflect on each session and to allow for some processing between sessions. This is why weekly sessions can work most effectively. Classical Freudian analysis can involve more regular sessions than this but that is the exception. The regularity of sessions can often be dependent on what presenting issues need addressing and what you are looking to work on.
Some therapists might insist that the therapy is weekly as they might not want to have gaps in their schedule between weeks. Some will even insist that you commit to long term work and pay for sessions missed even when on holiday. This is often the case when therapists rent dedicated business premises but is less so when therapists rent rooms on an ad hoc basis or who work from home.
Duration
People often ask how long will it take. Therapy can be short term or longer term. It might be that you are only seeking a short term approach, possibly involving 6-12 sessions. Or, it could be that you are seeking more depth and are looking for longer term sessions. Some people see therapy as a vital component of their self-care regime and as a useful regular MOT, without necessarily having a personal crisis.
Endings can be subject to negotiation but in general should always be worked towards as a process. It is rarely a good idea to suddenly stop your therapy. Feeling discomfort is almost inevitable if the therapy is authentic. Whilst its good to have rapport with your therapist it is important to remember also that you are not their mate. Getting to difficult and discomforting feelings is perhaps where you need to get to, but not too suddenly where you might feel unsafe.
Making the choice
Ultimately you will perhaps feel at ease in the therapy room if you sense that your therapist has done their own personal work on themselves. You might get a sense of this when it feels easy to talk about difficult personal material with them. They won’t transfer their anxiety onto you if they are uncomfortable with your personal material. The modality of your therapist will count for less compared to whether you feel comfortable with them. Your unconscious will allow you to reveal more and enter into greater levels of rapport.
A good therapist will not take offence if you decide to continue your search after having one session with them. It is important for you to feel comfortable with your therapist as rapport and a feeling of safety are key components for successful outcomes. All the research would appear to indicate that the therapeutic alliance (how you engage with your therapist) is a greater outcome measure than the modality of the therapist.