How Long Does Counselling Take To Work?
FAQs: Time Counselling Takes
There is normally no fixed time line for counselling treatment to work in - it is a truly unique journey for each individual.
This is simply because there are a multitude of variables involved in every counselling relationship between therapist and client:
Dependencies
- Experience & expertise of the chosen counsellor
- Counsellor's past experience in the issue at hand
- A client's willingness to open up and reveal significant elements of the problem
- A client's pre-existing beliefs and values, which determine how readily or how slowly, new ideas and new meanings are accepted and integrated into life.
- The possibility of "relapse" - or having work already done, not stick in daily life, and require backtracking to complete fully.
- How well defined a problem is, and to what extent it branches out into other areas of life which also need attention in order to feel better. Feelings and emotions can often seem to be about current day events, but require a change of perspective on the past as well, in order to resolve them.
- Very practical concerns, such as finance, and time available, to complete treatment.
A Standard Recommendation Is Six Sessions
In many cases counsellors work from a standard recommendation of six sessions. This usually isn't intended as a hard and fast rule, but more a guideline or starting point from which to explore the issue at hand.
Opening The Doorway For Change
Feeling better from counselling, hinges upon obtaining a counsellor's help to change the meaning of certain events or circumstances, such that it allows you to see events from a different perspective, and thus feel better about them.
There are a few crucial elements in the counselling relationship between client and therapist, without which the journey will be significantly slower; meaning more sessions, or even having to change therapists altogether:
Progress Can Speed Up, As Number Of Sessions Increases
Like many things in life, much of the work of therapy, is done at the start of the process.
Think of it like this. People often arrive at therapy as a result of a single negative thinking pattern that has become generalised into something else. e.g. one or two impactful events which the client has formed a negative conclusion around, begin to sow doubts in other areas of life.
The good news is, that this generalisation effect often plays out in practice, for positive changes made, too.
i.e. When, with the counsellor's help, we begin to see certain previous events more positively, this new perspective can spread through other seemingly unrelated events, and change our broader perspective, for the better, quicker.
Managing Expectations
This can sometimes mean that a relationship which the client initially thought would be long term, comes to a conclusion quicker than expected, especially where the original issue is well defined, with a clear end-goal understood by both parties.
Overall, the most appropriate plan is to review and discuss openly, the progress you're making in therapy, and weigh up all the practical and other factors affecting progress.
Our counsellors adhere to the BACP code of ethics and practice.
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