Individual Therapy

Working with a skilled therapist in individual psychotherapy provides an opportunity to gain perspective on painful feelings and challenging problems that can affect your mental health. Therapy can shed light on the ways in which your life has unfolded and how this has affected the pain that you experience.

Psychotherapy may be helpful when depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues provide momentum for examining one’s life and making change. Your work with an experienced therapist can help clarify the ways in which problems from the past get replicated in the present and can uncover old solutions that are no longer effective in resolving current problems. These discoveries in your work can pave the way for change.

Individual therapy can be helpful not only in improving one’s overall sense of wellbeing and mental health but also in addressing many of the most profound questions that underlie human suffering – how past betrayal closes us off to forming intimate new connections, what it means to love, and how one can trust in the face of repeated disappointments. This work with a well-trained psychotherapist can make a difference in the quality of your life by helping you to better understand and manage painful feelings, find more satisfying relationships, and decrease the loneliness of feeling unseen and unknown.

Key to a successful therapy experience is choosing the right psychotherapist, and understanding more about what to expect. Consider the following:

Common Questions about Individual Therapy

What kind of expertise should I look for in a therapist?

Indications of a therapist’s expertise: Look for a psychotherapist with a history of experience in the particular mental health issues that you are hoping to work on. An added indication of competence is a therapist’s experience training and supervising link to supervisions page the work of others.

Does psychotherapy need be face to face to adequately address mental health issues?

Face to face vs. other therapy options: Much has been learned about the effectiveness of telehealth since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Many therapists now work effectively totally on-line, adding convenience especially for those who live a distance from the therapist’s office or who are concerned about health issues. Others see some or all clients face to face. In choosing a therapist, what matters most is the skill and experience of the therapist and your own comfort with the person you choose.

How long should I expect therapy to last?

Duration of therapy over time: Sometimes a focused issue can be substantially resolved in only a few sessions of brief psychotherapy. But more difficult mental health issues may take months or years of ongoing or intermittent treatment.

How frequently does one meet with a psychotherapist?

Frequency of therapy sessions: Although it is often helpful to meet weekly in the beginning when you are establishing a relationship with a therapist, meaningful ongoing work can take place at whatever frequency you and your therapist find useful.

If I am having trouble in my relationship should I work with an individual therapist, a couples therapist, or both?

Choosing the type of therapy: This will depend on the nature of the problems that you are experiencing, as well as your past experience in therapy. The psychotherapists that you talk with about initiating therapy should be able to help you figure out what will be most effective for your particular situation.