Our counselors provide therapy in West Palm Beach, FL

My go-to approach for helping people in individual therapy is to listen to the reason they came to therapy and address those issues. I find the best benefit is helping a client with an issue affecting their current life because they will benefit from gaining back stability in their day-to-day life and can then move on to other things.

I teach the following tools in individual therapy:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy involves understanding foundational beliefs learned as a child, rules you made for yourself with those beliefs, recognizing that automatic thoughts are usually false, and learning how to change the distorted thinking to improve self-esteem and behaviors.
• Reality testing is looking at the facts of a situation and removing your own perspective to discover the truth.
• Mindfulness exercises help the client stay in the present moment to decrease anxiety and depression.
• Dialectical behavior therapy helps people with intense emotions, control, and understand emotions.

I know a client is making meaningful progress in individual therapy when they are completing treatment recommendations such as assignments and practicing the tools they learn in sessions in their own environment.

Clients can supplement their time in individual therapy with reading material given and/or recommended to them in treatment, journaling, and doing an activity they enjoy.

To prepare for your first individual therapy session, remind yourself you are seeing a professional who is here to help you, and the best results come when you are honest. I also suggest sharing any concerns you have with the therapist.