What is therapy anyway?

Therapy, or counseling, can be a strange situation at best, since it generally means you find yourself sitting in a room with one or more strangers, sharing things you generally don't talk about with people you just met. Basically, the idea of therapy is that you get to consult with a trained mental health or substance abuse treatment professional about the problem(s) you are experiencing and together you identify better coping skills and/or solutions to those problems.

Therapy is meant to be an active process between therapists and clients.  Your participation is vital in this process and you should not expect to just be given advice or told how to solve your problems. A very important part of the process is goal setting, which helps clients and therapists monitor what progress is being made.  Goals should emphasize a client's resources and strengths and be specific and observable.  These goals should be set early in treatment so that solutions and strategies can be developed.

Therapy can often be challenging, but should always be supportive.  You should expect to be treated respectfully and professionally.  Your consistent attendance at sessions and participation in the process will enhance your progress.  Numerous missed sessions will hamper progress and possibly result in the termination of therapy.  If you ever feel that you are not receiving competent treatment, you should feel free to speak to your therapist about your concerns.  If that does not resolve the issues, then you should contact your therapist's supervisor and/or the clinic director.

In small rural areas such as ours, dual relationships are sometimes difficult to avoid.  This means that therapists and clients may run into each other in the grocery store, at the movies, or any other public place. They may know the same people or go to the same doctor. It is a therapists duty to protect a client's confidentiality in every way possible.  For example, therapists should leave it up to their client to say hello in public or not, and it is not appropriate to initiate "therapy talk" in a public setting. Finally, a therapy relationship is based on professionalism, and sexual intimacy with a therapist is inappropriate and should be reported to the State Grievance Board.