I'm ageing out of the youth clinic at the big hospital here (24 y.o.) where I currently see a psychiatrist every 4ish months. She manages my meds and does a little bit of mindfulness/coping strategy talk with me.
I really like my psychiatrist and am sad to be leaving. However, she gave me the name of a therapist in the community who has worked in the mood disorder field in the past and is a licensed social worker. I did the initial 30-minute assessment over the phone and feel like she's going to be a good fit. My first appointment is August 5th. Nervous.
I have anxiety about two things:
Her fee is $130/hour and isn't covered by insurance.
and
I think I have unrealistic expectations regarding the outcome of our sessions. I want so badly to have my life "fixed". I did talk therapy in the past (I went 2x/week for 5ish years) and it was life-changing. But that was a long time ago, and I don't want to go into this all hopeful and then be let down. I'm scared.
Anyway, thanks for reading if you've gotten this far. Questions: How helpful have you found talk therapy/CBT in your life? Do you feel better after a session? Worse? Have you ever brought a family member to a session?
I have attended session by myself and with my husband for marriage issues and by myself for personal anxiety/stress.
I did always feel better after the sessions. I need to continue going regularly until the stressful situations had resolved.
I'm sure it will totally depend on your situation as to how quickly you should expect improvement. I would discuss your fears and expectations with the therapist at your first session.
I feel like I have had a lot of success with CBT but I did much more work outside of therapy than I did in my actual sessions. It was something that I had to practice every day and therapy was used as a check in and to problem solve things that were not quite working. I feel the experience was life-changing for me in that I approach stressful/emotionally difficult situations in a much more healthy way now. Therapy didn't fix anything in my life, but it did fix my reactions and tendency for my emotions to spiral out of control. After a session, I mostly felt better but sometimes did feel worse. When I did feel bad after a session, it never lasted more than an hour or so. I never had sessions with family members.
I feel like I have had a lot of success with CBT but I did much more work outside of therapy than I did in my actual sessions. It was something that I had to practice every day and therapy was used as a check in and to problem solve things that were not quite working. I feel the experience was life-changing for me in that I approach stressful/emotionally difficult situations in a much more healthy way now. Therapy didn't fix anything in my life, but it did fix my reactions and tendency for my emotions to spiral out of control. After a session, I mostly felt better but sometimes did feel worse. When I did feel bad after a session, it never lasted more than an hour or so. I never had sessions with family members.
This - I am a CBT therapist and honestly, most of the work should be done outside of therapy and then we talk about it in session. It's partially guided, but the good thing about CBT is that you are working with your therapist versus the therapist leading everything. It's hoped that you will learn the skills to help yourself, regardless of the issues that you face - and that means practice, practice, practice. A good CBT therapist will tell you this up front and encourage you to do the 'homework', helping you with what seems tough.
My clients do leave at times feeling horrible as bad history/feelings come up, but it's part of the process, and something that we work through in the next session, if need be.
Does CBT work for every person? No. Do I believe in it? Yes, though I'm happy to move away from it if it seems to be not working for my client.
Not sure how this might differ in Canada. In the U.S., psychiatrists primarily manage medications.
Both DS and my niece see a psychiatrist- she has ADHD and some anxiety probably bordering on PTSD for an abysmal childhood. DS has ASD, ADHD and GAD. The psychiatrist is mostly in charge of medication and how that is impacting their ability to function and access the therapy they have in place. Meds help, but they're only part of the tx plan. Alone they might make you feel a bit less anxious, but they won't fix anything.
But they both have a psychologist as well. And that's where the "fixing" takes place. DS has learned to reframe how he thinks and learned to mostly recognize when he's thinking/acting dysfunctionally and put strategies in place to do things differently. I don't think of it as work so much as a lifestyle. His meds settle him and give him clarity so he can access what he has learned.
My niece's therapist does something else. They talk. As an outsider, I feel like my niece has been having the same conversation with this woman for just over 10 years. She's wasting $150 a week discussing her boundaries with her dad and sister as well as whatever dude she's dating and nothing in her life has changed. She's clearly stuck. LOL, she even tells me Dr. R gives her the same perspective on her situation as I do week to week. I've tried to convince her to add CBT to her plan, even short term, but I get nowhere. Her meds do help her mood a bit, as well as her focus at her job and she loses things less often, but I think she'll never get to a place where she can effectively take control of the difficult people in her life until she does the work.