Is therapy long or short term? It depends……

One question I often get from potential clients is ‘how long do I think it will take?’ This can be an incredibly hard question to answer. Many factors affect how long therapy will take, such as session frequency, how many issues we want to look at, finances or funding sources, how long and when things happened and more. Generally, sessions want to be weekly or fortnightly for good therapeutic gains, and we aim to drop these back when things are looking up or as sessions as needing to be less frequent.

Certain conditions can take more time. Conditions such as Borderline Personality Disorder, complex trauma and schizophrenia often take longer, that is why therapies such ad Dialectable Behaviour Therapy and Mentalization Based Treatment for these conditions go for more frequent sessions for the course of a year or two (sometimes more). Those with earlier adverse childhood experiences can also need longer term work, as well as loss, grief or if someone is in palliative care.

Finances are important as I want to ensure people can get the most out of therapy and it not impact them. With the current economic crisis and due to living in regional Australia, this is something I think needs discussing up front. If finances are tight, we can often find smaller things to work on that can be done in shorter time frames.

Other factors, such as if someone is in a situation that is exacerbating their condition also play a role, this can make therapy seem less useful if it is being undone once someone leaves the room. Neurodiverse clients I work with often take time before they open up, as we often discuss the roles of masking and how they need to be able to have a sense and trust someone.

Trust can take time to grow, and it is also something that cannot be rushed, as this can have the opposite effect on people. This is why we focus on specific things as we go, that means people feel they are getting the most out of the work we do, as well as getting support in a way that is both meaningful and collaborative. 

We general;y aim to discuss a lot of this in the initial screening call, that way we are upfront from the start and there are no hidden surprises, as well as setting therapy up in a way that supports everyone. We then aim to do a few sessions whilst we get to know one another, discussing the issues that brought someone here and then out of this, choose a focus point to begin working on, reviewing and modifying things as we go,