How can I get the most out of psychotherapy?

As a patient or client, most of what happens in therapy depends on you. You are working with your therapist to help you change things in your life.   It is important to be completely honest with your therapist. He or she can't help you if you withhold important information.

 Take some time after the session to review what was said and to think about how to act on it. A therapy session usually lasts under an hour, but you have many more hours in the week to follow-up on what was said.

Be sure to do any “homework” that you were asked to do. Not all therapists assign tasks to do between sessions, but when they are assigned they are important to the process and are designed to further your treatment.

Pay attention to your emotions between sessions. Let your therapist know about any patterns that you that you notice, especially anything out of the ordinary.  Write things down and take them to the session if you need to.

Psychotherapy is a partnership. It will be more effective if you are an active partner.