What to Expect from your Therapy Session
What to expect from your therapy session
We check on how you are doing today and since our previous session with a brief mood scale. I think of this like getting your vitals taken when you go to your physician's office.
We check on how homework/goals/action items from last session went. We almost always have homework or goals to work on between sessions since it's been shown to significantly improve therapy outcomes.
We set a topic for the session together. We will always work on something that you choose. If you're not sure where to even start, I provide guidance to help
I provide empathy and support, checking-in ensure you feel 100% heard and understood before getting to work on any techniques for change
We flexibly and creatively use a variety of evidence-based techniques and methods to help you bring about change or acceptance of the problem you're wanting help with
Around 20 minutes until the end of the session, we start planning homework/goals/action items for the next week. We make sure the homework feels doable, makes sense to you, and feels very relevant to what you're dealing with
We discuss your takeaways from the session. Writing down your takeaways helps solidify your memory of what you found useful from our session.
We discuss feedback from you on how you think our session went and what could be improved. We do this verbally and through a very brief therapy session rating form at the end of every session. Research shows that asking for feedback is connected to better results - even when the feedback is critical or negative!
What do we talk about?
There are many topics that might be covered in an individual therapy session. The beauty of psychotherapy is that nothing is off limits! You get to have an incredibly special place that feels safe and where you feel free to explore any topic that is on your mind, without judgement.
Therapy does take effort and commitment from everyone involved. There are amazingly powerful therapeutic techniques, but like most treatments, they will only work as much as you do! This article might be helpful in determining if or when therapy might be right for you.
Some Good Reasons You Might NOT Want to Work with Me
In addition to making sure we're a good fit interpersonally, here's some practical reasons my practice may not work for you:
There's a bit of tech involved. You will need a strong stable internet connection, a good device with good lighting, and the ability to download, save, and upload documents onto your patient portal. For those who are visually impaired, or for whom video calls may not be the most appropriate, I do offer phone sessions without camera and have found they can be extremely effective in those circumstances.
Appointments are in the morning (4-10 AM Mountain Time). This availability is because I'm in a different time zone and it allows me to offer a unique slot of hours for scheduling for those who might not be able to schedule during common work hours or those who just prefer to do their therapy in the morning.
You'll likely have to do some work outside of sessions to get better. Most people won't feel better without putting effort into trying the techniques, which includes some in-between session work or homework. This typically consists of some writing (even jotting down bullet point notes) and thinking about techniques discussed in session as well as sometimes behavioral experiments we create during session. We will always make sure it's a doable assignment and something we both 100% agree on beforehand. Most people find powerful change comes from this in-between session work, so it's a no-brainer if we want therapy to be as quick and effective as possible. I have also worked with people who have learning disorders, ADHD, and physical limitations that require these methods to be modified, and of course, we will consider your unique situation to make sure these assignments are 100% doable.
Tips for a good virtual therapy session
Make sure you have a confidential space where you can talk freely without others present. This could be a separate room with a door (ideally) or even a closet or your parked car if needed.
Make sure the device you’re using can be propped up where you’ll be seated without you having to hold it.
It’s great if you can have some natural light on your face (not behind you) to aid my ability to see you well.
Headphones with a microphone can be useful to have nearby in case there’s difficulty with audio quality.
To ensure good bandwidth for the video, it’s best if you can ensure that others are not also utilizing the wifi to stream content at the same time. Test your internet speed to make sure it's sufficient.
I recommend having a pen and paper or an electronic document handy during sessions for writing exercises, homework, and reminders