What to expect from me:
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I am a relatively active therapist. That means that I don’t like the feeling of just sitting and staring at you any more than you like to talk to someone who is unresponsive, evasive or cryptic. Rather, in addition to reflecting back what I am hearing from you, I also will be happy to share my point of view, or to outline a variety of perspectives I think you might consider on a given topic.
I am never going to tell you what to think yourself, of course, and I will enjoy very much your making a point to disagree with me when you believe I am wrong, or when you see the issue from a different angle. I am comfortable talking about myself, and it is not unusual for me to mention examples from my own life, and my own family, if I think they can be useful to us in our work. Occasionally, a patient has said they don’t like it when I talk about my family – then I don’t. Other patients let me know they prefer me to be less talkative – I adjust accordingly. Your feedback is not only welcome – it is a vital part of our work.
Course of treatment:
I am very flexible about how treatment proceeds. Usually, I will simply ask you how soon you would like to return, though I would say that in general at the beginning of treatment, patients tend to have more frequent visits, perhaps weekly, or every other week. For some people, as treatment proceeds, visits often occur less often. Patients sometimes take a break from treatment and then return; other patients terminate treatment but decide a year or two later to come back in about a new issue, to review progress with an old issue, or just to touch base and share with me the changes in their lives. The bottom line is that I have no rigid rules about these matters. Rather, I encourage patients to trust their own instincts about what they do and don’t need from me.