My View of Psychotherapy
I view therapy as a partnership between you and me. You define the problem areas to be worked on; I use my special knowledge and experience to help you make the changes you want to make. Psychotherapy requires your very active involvement. It requires your best efforts to change thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
I expect us to plan our work together and to agree on a plan that we will both work hard to follow. From time to time, we will look at our progress and goals and make needed adjustments.
An important part of your therapy will be practicing the skills you will learn in our sessions. I will ask you to practice outside our meetings and we will work together to set up homework assignments. I might ask you to do exercises, to keep records, and perhaps to do other tasks to deepen your learning. You will probably have to work on relationships in your life and make long-term efforts to get the best results. These are important parts of the personal change process. Change will sometimes be easy and quick but more often it will be slow and sometimes frustrating. You will need to keep trying. There are no instant, painless cures and no “magic pills.” However, you can learn new ways of looking at your problems that will be very helpful for changing your feelings, your reactions and improve your quality of life.
