I will ask questions about the particular issue that brought you in. There will be questions about many areas of your life. I will ask about your thoughts and feelings, have you had significant transitions, been sheltered, what was your school experience like, did you meet developmental milestones in sequence with your peers. I want to get a good understanding of you, the person.

I often use an Incomplete Sentence Blank, (e.g., Home is_____, People are_____) in the first or second session. Treatment issues are addressed session one, however, questioning about assessment continues for a few sessions as does working on our treatment goals and objectives.

Usually therapy lasts 60 minutes and we meet weekly. I see some clients for 30 minutes regularly because that works best for them diagnostically.

Regarding frequency, weekly sessions work best initially. After that, depending on client needs, we will meet every other week or even monthly.

This varies depending on the individual, their diagnosis, and their functioning. A person may present with a single issue about a life transition and benefit from one to five sessions. Another person may present with chronic pervasive anxiety or depression and may require 12-18 months of work to solidify their stability.

Psychotherapy is effective for 75% of individuals.

The general or average effects of psychotherapy are widely accepted to be significant and large³. These large effects of therapy are quite consistent across most diagnostic conditions and most types of therapy. Variations in outcome are more heavily influenced by patient characteristics, e.g., chronicity, complexity, social support, and intensity and by clinician and contextual factors, than by particular diagnosis or specific treatment brands⁴.

Therapy can help with anxiety, depression, life transitions, OCD, trauma, and grief. It can help with mental health concerns that significantly impact your daily life. Therapy is more about awareness and self-responsibility.

Therapy can benefit anyone experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, relationship issues, or a desire for personal growth. If you feel overwhelmed, stuck, or curious about self-improvement, therapy may help.

Different types of therapy have a similar effect. Findings suggest that (1) most valid and structured psychotherapies are roughly equivalent in effectiveness and (2) patient and therapist characteristics, which are not usually captured by a patient's diagnosis or by the therapist's use of a specific psychotherapy, affect the results⁵.

For most psychological disorders, the evidence from rigorous clinical research studies has shown that a variety of psychotherapies are effective with children, adults, and older adults. Generally, these studies show what experts in the field consider large beneficial effects for psychotherapy in comparison to no treatment, confirming the efficacy of psychotherapy across diverse conditions and settings⁶.

Psychotherapy tend to last longer and be less likely to require additional treatment courses than psychopharmacological treatments alone. For example, in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders, psychotherapy clients/patients acquire a variety of skills that are used after the treatment termination and generally may continue to improve after the termination of treatment⁷.

Large multi site studies as well as meta-analyses have demonstrated that courses of psychotherapy reduce overall medical utilization and expense⁸.

‍There is a growing body of evidence that psychotherapy is cost-effective, reduces disability, morbidity, and mortality, improves work functioning, decreases use of psychiatric hospitalization, and at times also leads to reduction in the unnecessary use of medical and surgical services including for those with serious mental illness⁹. Successful models of the integration of behavioral health into primary care have demonstrated a 20-30 percent reduction in medical costs above the cost of the behavioral/psychological care¹⁰.  In addition, psychological treatment of individuals with chronic disease in small group sessions resulted in medical care cost savings of $10 for every $1 spent¹⁰.

Yes. The effects of therapy continue following therapy completion. In studies measuring psychotherapy effectiveness, clients often report the benefits of treatment not only endure, but continue to improve following therapy completion as seen in larger effect sizes found at follow-up¹¹.

Yes, therapy is confidential. However, therapists are mandated to report if there’s a risk of harm to yourself or others, or if there’s abuse involving vulnerable individuals. We will discuss this at our first session, and it is explained at length in the paperwork.