Q&A: Psychotherapy

Common Questions: Psychotherapy

How can psychotherapy help me?

You may find that psychotherapy:

can be a tremendous asset to personal growth, interpersonal relationships, and the troubles of daily life.
provide you with support, problem-solving skills, and enhanced coping strategies
can guide you to a fresh perspective on a difficult problem or help you in the direction of a new solution.
can help you develop new skills for improving your relationships
can guide you to a resolution to the issues or concerns that led you to seek therapy
can improve your communications and listening skills
can help you changing old behavior patterns and developing new ones

Do I really need psychotherapy?

While most people may have successfully navigated through other difficulties they have faced, it can still be enormously valuable to seek out extra support. Psychotherapy is for people who have enough self-awareness to realize they need a helping hand, as everyone may go through challenging situations in life. Taking stock of one's life and making a commitment to change a challenging situation can be liberating. Psychotherapy can provide the tools you need to avoid triggers, re-direct damaging patterns, and overcome whatever challenges you face.

What is psychotherapy like?

You can expect to discuss the current events happening in your life, the precipitating events leading to the situation, your personal history, and progress, or new insights gained from the previous therapy sessions. Depending on your specific needs, therapy can be short-term, for a specific issue, or longer-term, to deal with more difficult and more engrained patterns. Either way, it is most common to schedule regular sessions with your therapist, preferably at least once weekly.

It is important to understand that you will get more results from therapy if you actively participate in the process. The ultimate purpose of therapy is to help you transfer what you learned in your sessions into your daily life.

Does what we talk about in therapy remain confidential?

Successful psychotherapy requires a high degree of trust with highly sensitive subject matter that is usually not discussed anywhere but the therapist's office. Sometimes, however, you may want your therapist to share information or give an update to someone on your healthcare team (your physicians, or the insurance company), but by law your therapist cannot release this information without obtaining your written permission.

State law and professional ethics require psychotherapists to maintain confidentiality, except for the following situations in which a report will be made to the appropriate authorities:

*suspected past or present abuse or neglect of children, adults, and elders

*if the clinician has reason to suspect that a patient is seriously in danger of harming him/herself or has threatened to harm another person.