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A Path for Therapy

• The Gift of Therapy
• A Path for Therapy
• General Therapy Stages
• Seeking Change
• Interviewing a Therapist
• Search for a Therapist

A challenging path needs a good guide, plenty of food for thought, good places to rest on the way and a solid sense of direction.

No one likes to feel lost. Having a sense of direction for where you are heading in therapy is important. In fact, it’s grounding to know where you are heading and that grounding can provide a lot of comfort along the way. You might even be surprised to find that some of your aspects of self are supported just by knowing a path exists and understanding its elements.

A good therapist knows how to develop a treatment path with you and they will generally do so after they have had the opportunity to get to know you a bit. If you don’t have or don’t understand your therapy path, ask about it. Spend time reviewing it with your therapist. Ask questions.

Know what your progress points are. Celebrate progress. Celebrate learning. Celebrate sharing both.

Be open to discussing distractions or changes in course as they occur along your therapy path. Be willing to be flexible with your path and recognize your areas of growth. Be willing to discuss if you are uncomfortable about what you might see upcoming in your path. Your path is unique to your circumstances. While all paths have a common therapeutic foundation, a really good therapist doesn’t “rubber stamp” therapy. They overlay your specific needs, goals and objectives on top of a foundation of solid therapeutic guidelines and protocols.

Working with your therapist, you have a unique opportunity to blend the steps that will have the most meaning for your recovery. Similarly, your progress points along the way are unique to your discoveries, your growth, your time line and the relationship you share with your therapist. Be interactive with shaping your path with your therapist. Be constructive with it. Be willing to discuss it, review it, change it and modify it as you grow forward.

Remember, too, that therapy isn’t about growing forward in a straight line. Healing sometimes takes three steps forward and sometimes a step backwards to re-visit something meaningful with a new insight. It isn’t a straight line. Your therapy is a gift you unwrap each week and every progress point is priceless. You cannot put a value on the feeling of making progress. Get involved and stay involved in the development of your path, it’s yours, you own it and you share it. Help write your uniqueness to the therapeutic foundation of that plan. Make sure you and your therapist are using the same terms, speaking the same language and have a commonality of understanding. Your path is uniquely yours, but only to the extent you get involved, stay involved and interact with that path within the context of the therapy relationship itself.