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| by Jeffrey C. Wood, PSY.D. and Minnie Wood, NP |
 An Excerpt fromTherapy 101 A Brief Look At Modern Psychotherapy Techniques & How They Can Help VIEW BOOK! How do you know if your therapy is helping you? The simple way is to ask yourself: “Do I feel better now compared to how I felt before I started?” If the answer is yes, that’s a good indication it’s working. But if the answer is no, then maybe it’s time to think about trying something new. But let’s be more specific. Every few weeks you should reevaluate your therapy to determine if it’s effective. If your therapist doesn’t suggest this, you should. Make a plan with him or her to reevaluate what’s happening after the first eight weeks of treatment. Collaboratively, decide on a reasonable goal to achieve by that time. Then, if you’re not satisfied with your program in eight weeks, discuss your concerns. Maybe your treatment goals need to be readjusted, or perhaps the form of therapy you’ve chosen isn’t the right one for you and your needs. However, be fair in your evaluation. You cannot expect complicated problems to disappear completely in only a matter of weeks. Consider how old you are, how long the problem has existed, and how deeply ingrained it is in your life. If your problem is long-standing, assume that the treatment will take significant time and effort to counteract your old patterns. Also, be aware that you can judge the treatment accurately only if you’ve been attending your sessions regularly and doing what you and your therapist have agreed upon. If you haven’t been doing those things, then you’re just wasting your time and money. But if you’ve been following the treatment plan, you’ve been participating, and you’re still not satisfied, ask your therapist for his or her opinion about what’s happening. Again, either the treatment or your goals may need to be adjusted, or maybe you need to find a different form of treatment. And remember (or take note): therapy doesn’t mean forever. Just because you might need help now doesn’t mean you’ll have to be in therapy for the rest of your life. Good, effective therapy should help you learn how to better cope with the problem you came in with, but don’t expect it to solve every problem in your life. That’s impossible. Even good therapists and nurse practitioners (like your authors) have problems now and then. Look to your therapist as an expert teacher who’s helping you cope more effectively with a part of life that you’re struggling with. Don’t make him or her into a guru who you’re going to follow around for the rest of your life. Too often, we hear stories about clients who have spent over ten years with the same therapist, struggling with the same problems they had ten years ago. Most of these long-term clients stay in treatment because they’ve become dependent on the therapist instead of learning to cope with their problems on their own. If you’re working in a time-limited therapy like cognitive behavioral therapy or time-limited dynamic psychotherapy, most likely the treatment will come to a close after a predetermined goal has been reached. But if you’re in an open-ended treatment, like psychoanalysis or existential therapy, here’s a good basic rule to follow: if you don’t notice improvements in six to twelve months in treatment, you should consider an alternate form of treatment or, at least, get a second opinion. But again, remember, different problems can take different amounts of time to treat, and complex problems can take even longer. So you need to be your own best judge. Set goals for yourself with your therapist and when you reach those goals, reevaluate whether you want to commit to further treatment. If your goal is to be able to make a public speech without having a panic attack, and you reach that goal, maybe you’ll want to stop treatment. But if your problem is more widespread throughout your life, as it is in post-traumatic stress disorder following a trauma, maybe you’ll want to work on several goals, such as stopping your nightmares, soothing your anxiety, reconnecting with people, going out again, and so forth. Be compassionate with yourself as you begin the process of making changes in your life. It can sometimes be a slow process that takes work on your part, so be persistent. And when things get tough and you feel like giving up, remember your long-term goal of improving your life and why you’re investing all this energy in the first place.
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