If you’ve never been to therapy before, the whole experience may feel like being the new kid at school … or the new hire at a well-established company … You don’t know who everybody is, where to go, how things operate, where you should put your bag, or if they’ll be nice to you at lunch.
This blog serves as the sidekick to show you the ropes. We’re demystifying psychotherapy. What therapy is. Who you can see. The types of sessions to expect. The goals.
Here are two things to realize up front:
First off – the taboo nature of going to therapy greatly decreased amid the pandemic – more people from across all demographics are accepting the idea that, just like we should see physical health specialists when we have physical health concerns, we need to see mental health professionals when we have mental health issues.
Next – therapy is for everyone. Not only for people who are on the brink of divorce or people who have experienced trauma or have other forms of mental health concerns. Every single human being benefits from therapy in the same way everyone benefits from checkups at the doctor or regular exercise or a healthy diet. It’s an act of self-care.
What Is Psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy is a type of therapy that helps people who are facing mental health challenges improve their overall well-being. By far the most common client complaints therapists come across are clients being impacted by symptoms of depression and/or anxiety (at various levels of severity).
Why Go To Therapy?
Here are some of the most common treatment objectives in psychotherapy:
- psycho-education (for example, someone experiencing anxiety learning about the sympathetic nervous system, or fight/flight/freeze/fawn response, and the parasympathetic nervous system, aka the rest and digest response)
- emotional regulation (breathwork meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, validating feelings, compassionate self-care actions, self-soothing talk, etc.)
- stress reduction and improved coping skills (yoga, journaling, exercise, socializing, calming music, dance, art, nature activities, etc.)
- trigger identification – ask yourself: “What started or worsened my symptoms?” (incl. trauma triggers with PTSD)
- behavioral changes (time management, bedtime routine, environmental changes, rewards, etc.)
- cognitive work (awareness of thinking errors, cognitive restructuring, coherent and constructive narrative of one’s life story)
- improved communication skills (active listening, paraphrasing, being mindful of non-verbal communication and tone, assertiveness and boundary skills, etc.)
How Do I Choose My Therapist?
Look for someone who is credentialed to provide psychotherapy (and ask them about their clinical expertise):
- Psychiatrist, M.D. (doctor of medicine who specializes in psychiatry)
- Can they prescribe medications? – yes
- Can they administer and interpret psychological testing? – a psychiatrist will refer you to a psychologist for psychological testing and to a neuropsychologist for neuropsychological testing because they are the ones who are expertly trained in these areas
- Can they teach at college level? – a psychiatrist is more likely to teach students in medical school or psychiatry students doing their psychiatric residency than to teach students in a psychology program; a psychiatrist can also be a guest lecturer on topics such as anatomy or physiology in other health science graduate programs.
- Licensed Psychologist – Ph.D. or Psy.D. (they are NOT medical doctors, but have a doctorate degree in psychology)
- Can they prescribe medications? typically not, but in certain states, they are allowed to prescribe psychotropic medications with additional training (not in California)
- Can they administer and interpret psychological testing? – yes
- Can they teach at college level? – yes, they can teach students who are obtaining a doctorate degree in psychology as well as master’s degree and undergraduate degree students with a psychology major
- Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist – LMFT (master’s degree)
- Licensed Professional (Clinical) Counselors LPCC or LPC – (master’s degree)
- Licensed Clinical Social Workers, LCSW – (master’s degree)
- Can they prescribe medications – no
- Can they administer and interpret psychological testing – no
- Can they teach at college level? – yes, they can teach students who are obtaining a master’s degree in their same field as well as undergraduate degree students with the same major (marriage and family therapy, social work, and counseling respectively)
FYI – a life coach has no formal education in psychology and is not licensed to practice psychotherapy.
Look for some of or all of these 10 traits when screening different therapists during your initial phone call or your first/intake session:
What Are The Different Formats Of Therapy?
There are four different formats of psychotherapy (individual, group, couples, and family) and each format has several different approaches (aka orientations, theories, or schools of thought) to therapy – with each format, I am adding a list of five different approaches to therapy, but the number of approaches listed below is not exhaustive. Keep in mind that the same therapy approach can be used in some or all of the different formats.
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