Many clients come to therapy because they have a pressing life issue that is causing stress. They seek a therapist to guide them through a turbulent time that has brought confusion into their life. These stressors can be a loss, a break-up, financial strain, professional challenges, or a specific interpersonal conflict causing depression, anxiety or body discomfort. Depending on the issue, therapy can help these types of problems in a defined period of time. However, localized pain is very often connected to powerful experiences that need time to fully process and heal.

The Time it Takes to Heal

The answer, as you can guess, is: it depends. The American Psychological Association reports that on average, 15 to 20 sessions are required for 50% of patients to feel their symptoms have improved. In my experience as a therapist, 3.5 months of weekly 1-hour therapy sessions will help alleviate symptoms as the report suggests. But fully heal the root issue? No. Dealing with one bump in the road of life is one thing, but dealing with the road that got you to that bump is another. And setting yourself up for a clear path into your future is yet another. So, let’s lay out the map.

Short Term Therapy

People tend to think short term therapy means 3-8, 1-hour sessions, but this time frame is more like mini therapy. In 8 sessions, you will just be getting to know your therapist. You will likely be able to understand and name one core personal issue and have 1-2 techniques to help cope with it.

Mini therapy can be helpful in times of crisis or to deal with a pressing issue. You can expect short-term therapy to last 3-5 months. This amount of time allows you to process a specific aspect of your life and face any avoidant tendencies. It offers a basic groundwork for future therapy, if you were to pick it up again, and can provide understanding of how and why you react and feel the way you do. The most important aspect to therapy of this length is that it gives you a chance to establish a trusting relationship with your therapist. According to research, “the quality of the client–therapist alliance is a reliable predictor of positive clinical outcome.”

Long Term Therapy

Historically, long term therapy meant patients coming in for several sessions per week over many years for psychoanalysis. In psychoanalysis, clients are guided to bring unconscious material to consciousness. Even so, psychoanalysis can be flexible in frequency and involve many orientations including talk therapy, somatic psychotherapy, or internal family systems, among others.

Long term therapy essentially means that treatment lasts until the client feels secure enough to take what they have learned from therapy into their life without regular sessions. The client can return at any point to continue therapy, if they feel the need. During long term therapy, sessions explore family of origin, trauma, and core personality traits. This helps you become aware of behavioral patterns, belief systems, and reactivity that may no longer serve you. Additionally, it helps you build alternative frameworks to view yourself and others with compassion.

Life-Long Therapy

Lifelong therapy can be helpful as you age, grow, and change. At each developmental stage of life, our values, and perspectives shift. Returning to therapy over the course of your lifetime supports self-knowledge each step of the way. If you work in therapy over a lifetime, you can process trauma, relieve adverse symptoms, and develop self love. Whatever time you have, whatever time it takes, therapy gets you closer to yourself, closer to well-being, and closer to inner peace. Contact me to talk more about the right time to start therapy.

References
Ardito Rita B., Rabellino Daniela, Therapeutic Alliance and Outcome of Psychotherapy: Historical Excursus, Measurements, and Prospects for Research, Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME 2, 2011; DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00270

de Maat, Saskia3; de Jonghe, Frans3; Schoevers, Robert3; Dekker, Jack1,2. The Effectiveness of Long-Term Psychoanalytic Therapy: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies. Harvard Review of Psychiatry 17(1):p 1-23, January 2009; DOI: 10.1080/10673220902742476