Easing Into Mental Health Treatment

Finally finding a therapist with whom you feel comfortable can feel like such a relief — but now you have to ensure you get the treatment you need. Initial impressions are good, but as you attend more therapy sessions with this therapist, you'll get a better sense of how they want to conduct your treatment. That means you need to pay attention to how you feel during the sessions — and ensure you can get to the sessions, to begin with.

You Have to Be Comfortable With the Treatment 

Therapy can be uncomfortable, and you may be asked to think about things that you really don't want to. In that sense, some discomfort during therapy is expected. However, you have to be comfortable overall with what the therapist is doing and wants you to do. For example, if you are extremely uncomfortable with the idea of taking medication, and your mental health issue is on the mild or mild-to-moderate side, you'd do best seeing a therapist who is open to trying non-medication therapies first. You and your therapist are supposed to be a team.

If you have a severe condition, then you'd want to be with a therapist who knows how to work with the medications normally prescribed for your condition (even if the therapist doesn't have the authority to prescribe medications, they have to be aware of side effects and how people react when taking them). You also need to be comfortable overall with the type of treatment and be confident that you're on the right path.

Do Try to Go as Often as the Therapist Suggests

Finances and insurance limits often prevent people from going to the number of therapy sessions that their therapist suggests. For example, your therapist may want you to attend a session weekly, but your budget allows for only twice a month. You may want to see if there are remote options or even group options that could potentially cut down on the cost of each session. That would allow you to attend more each month instead of rationing your care.

If you have been through several sessions and still don't feel like this is heading in the right direction, you may want to try seeing other therapists in hopes of switching. However, if you feel like things are neutral to good, then keep going. Sometimes it takes a while to have that breakthrough that indicates you've made major progress.

Contact a mental health clinic to learn more. 

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