Data from Statista suggests that in 2020, over 40 million U.S. adults sought professional mental health help. This number keeps rising every year, and ideally for good. That’s because there’s no alternative to therapy.
However, one question many people often ask is how many therapy sessions are needed before they can get better.
One therapy session alone isn’t enough to establish trust or build a solid relationship with your therapist. It takes multiple appointments before you can really see results or know if your therapist is right for you.
According to BetterHelp, a single therapy session costs between $75 to $100 in the U.S. That’s one of the reasons why many avoid going to therapy multiple times. However, despite the costs, it’s vital to attend multiple sessions.
In this post, we’ll go over five reasons why therapists ask their clients to attend multiple sessions.
#1 A Single Session is Not Enough
Although it can be helpful to have one therapist-client interaction, you must understand that this interaction alone won’t be enough for you to make changes in your life. For these changes to become permanent, it takes consistent work over time.
Even though it might seem like an easy fix at first glance, most people need more than one session before they start feeling better about themselves and their lives overall. Some people can achieve positive results after just one session, while others may need several sessions before they notice any real progress.
Each session will surely have something new to offer. Behavioral health professionals use a specialized mental health practice management solution to keep track of your progress and schedule appointments. The system also houses electronic medical records so that your therapist knows how to proceed with each session and what might work best for their clients in the coming days.
#2 Therapy is a Lifestyle
Therapy is a lifestyle. It’s something you incorporate into your daily life, not something that you do for a few weeks and then stop because it has served its purpose.
Therapy is not something you do for a few months and then stop because all your problems are solved, and you’re no longer depressed or anxious anymore. It’s not like taking medication, which can be prescribed to solve one problem at a time.
In therapy, you need to build trust with your therapist so that they can dive into your inner psyche and evaluate you from within. For that to happen, you must first accept this process as a lifestyle instead of looking at it as a quick fix for all your mental health problems.
#3 You Need a Safe Space
Therapy is often considered to be the most intimate relationship that you have, and this is because you are sharing your innermost thoughts and feelings with a stranger. A good therapist will be able to help you process these things in a way that feels comfortable for both of you, but it can be difficult to know where to begin or how much information they need at any given time.
For therapy sessions to work well, both parties need the freedom to say what they want without fear of judgment or criticism from the other person. This means that there needs to be an understanding between the client and therapist regarding confidentiality. This can only happen once you build trust with them, which can’t happen over a single session.
#4 You Need to Meet the Right Therapist
Find a therapist you feel comfortable with and can fully trust. When you attend therapy sessions, you are entering into a relationship with your therapist, so they must be someone who listens to your concerns and wants to help you improve yourself.
It is essential to find someone who will listen attentively as well as offer advice if needed. That is why you have to try out multiple sessions before you can realize if it’s working for you or not. You might need at least three or four sessions before you can come to a conclusion regarding this.
#5 You Need to Talk About Yourself
Therapists want you to talk about yourself. They want you to talk about what is going on in your life and how you feel. They want to know about your past experiences so that they can help you move forward from them and prevent them from affecting the present.
As you start talking about yourself, you will realize that one session won’t be enough. That’s why your therapist will ask you to come back so that the conversation can go on. Otherwise, it might prove difficult for them to truly unravel what’s bothering you.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), one in five U.S. adults has some sort of mental health problem. That’s almost 20 percent of the population, which is concerning.
Thus, going to therapy is a must if you don’t want to fall into that statistic, and for maximum effectiveness, you have to keep attending those sessions until you’re fully well.
In conclusion, it is crucial to understand that going to therapy is a lifelong commitment. You need to be prepared for the long haul, but it will be worth it in the end.
