What is Therapy Like?
Therapy is a deeply personal experience that plays a critical role in mental health and wellbeing by offering people a safe place to explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Yet, so often popular media misrepresents therapy. From Shrinking, which depicts a grieving therapist who gives unfiltered advice to clients, to Gypsy, which portrays a therapist become deeply and dangerously immersed in the personal lives of her clients, one thing becomes clear; the media’s inaccurate portrayal of therapists in movies and TV shows further mystifies the therapy experience. In fact, many people really don’t know what happens behind the closed doors and computer screens during a therapy session.
First and foremost, therapy is about building a unique and meaningful relationship. The therapeutic space is a powerful container combining professionalism and evidence-based practices with genuine human emotion and connection. In graduate school during the thick of textbooks and studying therapeutic modalities, we learned about the Dodo Bird Verdict. This meta-analysis, conducted in the late 1990s, revealed that the most significant predictor of therapeutic success was the therapeutic alliance, the relationship between therapist and client, not the type of psychotherapy practiced (Wampold et al., 1997). This is not to discredit the trainings and evidence-based practices that I also commit to, but to emphasis the importance of the relational connection and underscore the value of the alliance formed in the space between the couch and the chair.
Therapy is a mirror into the human condition, and often reflects historical dynamics that may remind you of past experiences, sensations, or stories. It is a safe haven that holds peoples’ deepest fears and struggles while also celebrating their triumphs and achievements.
What to expect from a therapy session?
Intake and Goal setting
At the outset, we begin the journey of building our therapeutic relationship. Over the course of two or three sessions, I will ask you a wide range of questions to get to know you better and begin the creating the treatment plan tailored to your therapy goals. This intake process is inviting, collaborative, and structured.
Ongoing Therapy
After the intake process, therapy takes on a more fluid nature. I weave in evidence-based practices like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to assist with symptom reduction, and personal development. I’ll often begin sessions by asking: where should we begin today?
Resources and Tools
Throughout the therapy journey, I will provide helpful readings, documents, and exercises relevant to your needs and progress.
Homework and Reflection
You may be assigned homework or thought-provoking questions to think about in between sessions encouraging personal growth becoming a way of living instead of only practiced once a week.
Reference
Wampold, B. E., Mondin, G. W., Moody, M., Stich, F., Benson, K., & Ahn, H. (1997). A meta-analysis of outcome studies comparing bonafide psychotherapies: Empirically, “all must have prizes.” Psychological Bulletin, 122(3), 203–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.122.3.203
