Our counselors provide therapy in Philadelphia, PA

My go-to approach for helping people in individual therapy is a person-centered approach. Everyone is so unique; I want to find out about you first. There are techniques, homework, and other ways to implement change, but if it doesn't fit in with what works for you, it won't be effective.

I believe there are several steps that will help in the process of therapy. The first is to increase awareness of the issues going on in people's lives. To achieve this, one needs to look at the patterns that a person engages in. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as journaling, processing one incident deeply, tracking tools, etc. When there is awareness, then you need to move on to what is the impact of the issue. Is it really something that you want to change? The client has to be driving the bus on this one. I may personally think that something should change in someone's life, but if they don't, there cannot be any change. Finally, the client needs to learn new ways to manage and implement those changes. This is often the hardest step because there can be pushback from others in your life. This is part of the process to learn how to deal with that pushback.

I know a client is making meaningful progress in individual therapy when they tell me! It might be simple, but when they share any decrease in symptoms, progress in implementing the coping skills, or feeling more joy in their lives or increased hope in their future, I know there's progress.

Clients can supplement their time in individual therapy by writing down ideas to talk about in therapy in order to try to remember what happened in the week. Everyone does this; there is so much going on in our lives that it's hard to remember what you did yesterday, let alone in a whole week. It helps to jot down some notes about what happened during the week.

To prepare for your first individual therapy session, you can jot down questions or concerns you have about starting therapy. It is an overwhelming process to gather the energy to start therapy. I understand how it feels to have to talk to a stranger about what you are going through. It can be scary. I find that writing these thoughts and feelings down can help you gear up for the first session.