Your Side of The Street

If you are currently in therapy yourself and want to get the most out of it, here are some tips:

1.  Setting up a pattern in your brain.
If it is possible to arrange with your counselor to meet on the same day each week, do so.  A few days before your session, begin taking a self-survey.  Notice what is coming up for you.  Next, begin to learn to allow a natural prioritization to take place within; see what bubbles up to the top as feeling like it's the most important to you.  This is probably the topic which will lead you to the most growth.  At your session, all plans aside, present what is on your mind and in your heart at that moment.  After your session, if you can do something quiet or in solitude for awhile, it a good idea to give yourself a chance to absorb what went on in the session.  Do not go to a friend and discharge all the associations and  feelings that were generated in you during the appointment.  You dissipate the psychic energy of the therapy process by doing that.  Keep it to yourself (maybe you can think of it as your personal treasure).  Then, during the next few days, reflect upon what occurred in your visit and notice if anything comes up in you as a result of what you and your therapist talked about.

Take a day off and then  begin your prep for your coming session---and now, as you can see, you are putting your brain into a healthy pattern.
Practice this and, eventually, it will become natural to you.

2.  What to expect.
Some clients who are brand new to therapy expect it to be like it is at the doctor's office when the patient says what's wrong and the doc writes out a prescription.  Psychotherapy is not like that; it is a collaborative process.

3.  How to use your time.
All is 'grist for the mill':  Bring your problems, your questions, your feelings, your quandaries, your wishes, your plans, your successes, your insights, your ideas, your past, your thoughts,--- whatever is pertinent to you.  It is your time to explore.

4.  Absorbing what is offered.
Back to the two-way street:  Your therapist will have some observations to share, some suggestions, some questions, in response to what you present---try to take those in and respond to them.

5.  Let me know if this was helpful!