10 things your therapist won’t tell you.

There’s an interesting post from Psych Central about 10 things your therapist won’t tell you about therapy.  If you have any questions about this after reading it, let me know.

The only one I’d really differ on is about client access to records.  Yes, there will be hemming and hawing, but it is more to make sure that there is nothing in the chart that violates another person’s confidentiality.  Generally, I prefer to go over the chart materials with the client present.

It is a real shame that people have to have a mental health diagnosis even if they don’t want one.  Luckily, there are some generic diagnoses out there that can be used, like “Adjustment disorder”, “Mood disorder, not otherwise specified”, etc.  However, the problem is, you won’t get more than about 8 sessions from your insurance company with a diagnosis like this.  Just because you have 20 sessions on your plan doesn’t mean that you will get all 20 sessions.  Insurance reserves the right to say that you don’t need it, medically speaking.  Any questions, let me know.

2 days left, including today

Tomorrow is my last day with my current employer, before I strike out on my own.  I’ve spent the past 3 weeks saying goodbye to my clients, some of whom took it well, some of whom did not.

When you come to the point in therapy where you need to say goodbye to your therapist or your therapist needs to say goodbye, or therapy has accomplished what it needs to accomplish, you should do the following things.

1.  Definitely attend your last session.

2.  Don’t bring gifts–your therapist cannot receive them due to professional ethics.  Bringing yourself is fine.

3.  Discuss what was helpful in therapy.

4.  Discuss what you wished happened in therapy, including what you did not find helpful in therapy.

5.  Discuss what you want to work on in the future, with or without a therapist.

That way you both can end on good and complete terms and feel like everything was said.