How Often Do You Need To Go To A Psychologist

Someone is afraid that psychotherapy is for life. Someone thinks that they can solve all their problems in one session with a psychologist. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between.

When planning psychotherapy, you will want to know how long it will last. This is necessary to plan the budget and your time. And still it would be desirable to understand, when all the same to expect changes. 

Although psychotherapy is quite regulated, it is difficult to accurately calculate the number of sessions that you will need. But we will try to orient you and explain why the duration and frequency of therapy will be individual for each person.

How Long Does It Take To Get Result With A Psychologist?

“Is a couple of sessions enough for some, and someone should go to a therapist for six months or even a year? And then, all my life!”

Globally, the duration of therapy depends on the complexity of the request and the individual characteristics of the client. Let’s take a look at each component. 

Request

Deal with long-term depression longer than with a career guidance issue. How much you should go to a psychologist depends on the complexity of the request. In most areas of psychotherapy, you can focus on these statistics:

• Problems within the conventional norm (relationships, meaning of life, anxiety) take most clients from several months to six months. 
• Therapy for severe conditions, mood disorders, anxiety disorders can take up to a year.
• Therapy for personality disorders can take over a year.

Client

Even if people have a similar request, they will still move at different speeds. It depends on:

• Willingness to change

– How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?

– Just one, if the light bulb is ready to change!

Psychotherapy is a joint work, and the client’s contribution to it is no less important than the professionalism, knowledge and skills of the psychologist. Some people find the change easier than others. Everyone takes a different amount of time to adapt to these changes. But it is important to move at a comfortable pace and take your time so that the result is sustainable. 

• Attitudes about psychotherapy

The principle of a self-fulfilling prophecy works here: if a person strongly believes in some outcome of the situation, he will unconsciously act in such a way as to bring this outcome as close as possible. 

If you believe that psychotherapy won’t work—and sabotage your homework, speak insincerely, try to “expose” the psychologist—it probably won’t work. If you come with a positive attitude, you can achieve what you want faster.

• Levels of trust and cooperation between the client and the psychologist

There is a term for this – the therapeutic alliance. This is the relationship that develops between the psychologist and the client. They are based on a common goal and cooperation in achieving it. Therapeutic alliance has a major impact on the effectiveness—and speed—of therapy. 

• Doing homework

In some approaches, psychologists give clients homework: filling out an emotional diary, writing practices, breathing exercises. The more responsible the client approaches their implementation, the more he brings the result closer. 

Psychotherapy does not work just because the client goes for it. This is a process in which the contributions of both parties are important. 

How Many Sessions With A Psychologist Do You Need To Go In Different Areas Of Therapy

There is another important factor on which the duration of therapy depends – the direction in which the psychologist works. 

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most researched area. Lot of research have shown how long the average CBT requests take on average:

There are short-term approaches, where the duration does not exceed 20 sessions. If you need to find a solution to a specific problem quickly, this is a task for them. Short-term referrals are not suitable for work with personality disorders, extreme and psychotic conditions.

Are considered the longest Psychodynamic approach. It is worth going to them if you want to understand yourself at a deep level, work through childhood traumas, and determine the reasons for what is happening in life. This is the kind of therapy that can last a lifetime (if that is what the client wants). 

What Results Can Be Expected At What Stage

Although for many who go to therapy, improvements occur after the first session – most likely, you will not achieve a sustainable result right away. Psychotherapy can be divided into several stages, and each of them will has its own purpose:

The First Meeting

The first session is devoted to getting to know each other and discussing the request. You tell us what is bothering you and what result you want to achieve in therapy. A psychologist should determine your background: what do you do, where do you work, what is your family and relationships with people. If it is still uncomfortable to discuss a topic, you have the right to tell the psychologist about it and not answer. 

At the first meeting, it is important to understand how comfortable you are with the psychologist. Will you be able to talk with him about personal things, show emotions, and trust? It won’t happen all at once, but paying attention to your feelings is critical. If you don’t like something, speak up.

After the first session, people often feel quite good – as if a weight has been lifted off their shoulders. But don’t take this as the ultimate success. This feeling is because you finally decided to deal with your problems and told a person who listened to you carefully and understood. Most likely, there is still a long joint work ahead. 

Continuous Work

This stage is different for everyone and lasts a different amount of time. Tune in advance to the fact that now you will not leave inspired after each session. In therapy, you often have to deal with difficult topics and talk about things that you used to keep quiet. This can make it feel like you’re just wasting your time and focusing on the negative. 

In fact, at this stage the most important thing happens: awareness of problems, acceptance and work with them. Without negative emotions, change is impossible. 

Completion 

When you reach your goal in psychotherapy, it ends. If you feel that there have been lasting changes in your life that you are happy with, you can tell the psychologist that you plan to finish the job. It is best to report this in advance to discuss the changes, give feedback and receive recommendations from a psychologist.

Support

After therapy is over, you can rely on the recommendations of a psychologist so as not to “roll back” back. It’s hard to live without regular support. You may need self-help books and psychological techniques to help you maintain and develop your results. 

Even if you have completed psychotherapy, you may return to it in the future. We recommend discussing this option with a psychologist in advance. 

How Often Do You Need To Go To A Psychologist

Standard frequency – once a week. In extreme situations (suicidal thoughts, acute feelings, addictions), you can meet a psychologist several times a week.

Some clients agree to go to psychotherapy less often – for example, several times a month. 

Why Regularity Is Important

Most often, we recommend going to a psychologist regularly, and not occasionally. In any work on yourself, you need a mode and stability. And many more clients say that it is very supportive to know that once a week you can share important things with a person who will not judge and criticize you.

How Do You Know That The Therapy Is Working?

During therapy, it is important to track the progress. The change doesn’t have to happen right away, but it should. If you have been going to a therapist for a long time, but you feel that you are “marking time” – tell him about it. You will need to either change strategy or leave.

Therapy works when qualitative changes begin to occur in your life in all cabinets: for example, you have improved relationships, stopped suffering from panic attacks, begun building boundaries in communication, and so on.