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There are a variety of therapy techniques that one
may employ, and I have found a few that have been particularly effective
and well-received by patients, that I have used over the course
of the last 15 years.
First and foremost, a therapist must treat
all patients with the utmost respect and legitimacy. Consider
if one of your family members needed therapy; how you would like
them to be treated by the therapist?
My therapy style for the most part is confrontive, but loving.
Obviously this changes with certain diagnoses and patients. What
does this mean? I tell the patients in the beginning, whether it
is family or individual sessions, adult or adolescents, that talk
therapy doesn’t work unless the individual does some work
on his/her own the other 6 days a week while not in session. I set
the stage by telling them that a magic wand cannot be waved, and
everything wiped clean. It is imperative that the patient work on
some of his/her own issues the other 6 days of the week. I next
let them know that I am not a believer in long term therapy, that
in the first 5-6 months, if they do not see any changes, either
they are not working hard enough outside the session, or as a therapist,
I am not working hard enough, which also role models to them some
fallibility. The therapist is not god-like, and will make mistakes.
The next thing I tell them is that there will be times when they
walk out of session and will think I am a great guy, and will really
like me, and then there will be times when they will actually hate
my guts, which is also okay, since therapy deals a lot with confronting,
having a patient confront their own issues, and in walking a path
they don’t normally want to walk, these feeling will occur,
and are totally normal.
I make predictions regarding the potential drop out rate of patients.
Predictions are beneficial, and are sometimes a useful tool down
the road.
I know some therapists don’t believe in this, but many patients
want to hear initial goals, guidelines and treatment dates. Not
that I take a gross medical model approach in therapy. I do feel
that working with the patient and writing down some of their goals,
what they expect to achieve in therapy, what they want, and giving
them some target deadlines when we will revisit these goals at a
later time, is extremely beneficial. The patient can them monitor
their own progress.
These are a few guidelines that I have used and found to be beneficial,
and I try to implement these in the first session.
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