A frequent question we get asked by people unfamiliar with therapy is: “How Does Therapy Work?” When you call or email us, you will be asked the following: first and last name of all to attend therapy, address, phone, email, and if you are insurance or private pay. See Fees for further information on that. In addition, we would like you to provide days of the week and times of the day that are most suitable for you, you and your partner(s), or your family.
If you are a couple seeking therapy, I tend to prefer speaking to both of you for the intake. Consider reading over How to Get the Most Out of Couple Therapy to help you feel more prepared.
The next step is the initial intake, which is between 75-90 minutes based on insurance or private pay services. The intake will likely feel more like an interview as we will be collecting a significant amount of information on you and/or your partner/family members. During this process we are asking you to trust us and be willing to share things that can be difficult on several levels. First, we am asking that you share things with us you may have never expressed before and that can be extremely nerve-wrecking and anxiety inducing. Second, you may have shared some of this information before with others, but we are still strangers to you and it might feel weird being so honest with a stranger. Third, most people when they think of therapy, they think of talk therapy via lying on a sofa while the therapist scribbles down what’s wrong with you. Some people believe our job is to judge them on what they are doing wrong. The Far Side Comics did a great job of representing this sentiment:
This is not how we conduct therapy. No one is perfect, everyone has flaws and how would me judging you help you move forward? It wouldn’t, so it would be a contradiction for us to do so. We also inject humor into our therapy, in part because all of us here tend to have a humorous personality, but also because we think with a little laughter we can overcome many challenges.
After the intake, the regular therapy sessions begin. In these sessions, we sometimes sit together and talk, sometimes we will complete projects and tasks, and sometimes we may ask you to reenact a scenario based on what has brought you to therapy. We might meditate together, we may go over ways to increase or decrease what you are coming in for, we may speak more, or we may hardly speak and leave the time to you. Everything we do is based on what you are willing to share and how deep you are willing to go. How seriously you take therapy will reflect on how successful therapy feels to you. Know that we cannot read your mind, so if something is bothering you, or you felt a task or homework assignment we gave was ineffective, then tell us directly, or if that feels difficult, you can reach out to Dr. Amanda Anderson our site supervisor. What works for one person may not work for another and we can go over what went well and what was left unfinished.
If you are interested in taking a short tour of some of the rooms within Oshkosh Marriage and Family Therapy Center, LLC please click here.
Oshkosh Marriage and Family Therapy Center, LLC 