How Long Does Therapy Take? 🕒

Hey guys, Natalie Moore, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist here, and in today's video I'm going to answer the question, how long does it take for therapy to work? So of course it depends, but I'm going to talk about 5 things that I've seen that it really depends on. So number 1 is, where is the client starting in terms of the severity of their symptoms that they're coming in with, and where do they want to be in life? Like, what are their goals? For treatment. Let's say somebody has really severe symptoms, they don't have really good coping skills, they don't have a great support system, they have a lot of risk factors, they're, they're really struggling, and they want— their goals for therapy are to have an amazing life, amazing job, relationships that are optimal, and they just want to, you know, they want to seek enlightenment or something. That's going to be a huge, huge difference between where they're starting and where they want to be. And so obviously that's going to take a lot more time to achieve. On the opposite end of the spectrum, let's say there's somebody who they've got their life pretty much together, really high functioning. So let's say they're just dealing with some minor, you know, anxiety or a life transition or something, and they just want to uplevel their life a little bit. So they kind of want to go from here to here, nothing super major. That's not going to take as long. That might take 6 to 8 sessions for them to see some improvement in their life. Number 2 is the client's readiness and commitment to change their behavior outside of psychotherapy sessions. So think of it this way: therapy is a safe space for you to explore your issues, to explore your goals, and have a healing experience and gain some tools. But where the work really happens is actually in between your therapy sessions, where you start applying the insights and the strategies and the things that you've learned and come to know in therapy so that it seeps out into your normal life and has an impact on your life positively. So a lot of people come to therapy who are not really ready for the transformation that they say that they want. They come in, maybe there's, there's something that they're going through that's really difficult, and but when it comes to actually making changes in their life, they make a lot of excuses, or they're really, they have a lot of defenses and there's a lot of things holding them back from actually making those changes, therapy is going to take a lot longer for that type of client because the beginning stages are going to be building the relationship between the client and the therapist and helping them see that therapy is a safe place for them to make these changes. And maybe over time they'll start to implement different behaviors in between sessions. Number 3 is the type of therapy. So the type of therapy that I do, somatic psychotherapy, is a holistic integrative mind-body type of therapy. And this is usually more slow-moving type of therapy. The way I see it, you can't put a rush on healing, and so therapy with me will probably go a little bit more slower pace. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are actually some types of therapies— CBT is a classic example, cognitive behavioral therapy— that often has a timetable in terms of what the therapist and the client work on that specific week, and it will often have an ending time in terms of like an 18-week module or something like that. So depending on the therapy, um, you'll have different expectations in terms of how long you're going to be in treatment. Number 4 is the therapist's skill level. So think about it this way: if a therapist unfortunately is not that good at what they're doing, then it's going to be hard for a client to make progress and really benefit from therapy in the way they hope to. Whereas on the other hand, if a therapist is very skilled and knows what they're doing, they're going to be able to facilitate change a lot more quickly. Number 5 is: does the client want the therapy to be fast-acting or long-lasting? So there are more brief solution-focused types of therapies that are specifically designed to help people develop coping skills, make changes in their lives right now, and see an impact. There are other therapies that are more based on the long haul and helping people facilitate transformation from the inside out and more growth-oriented, more insight-oriented approaches. That are all about helping people connect to their own wisdom and their own guidance so that they can have a transformation, a transformational experience in therapy. So it also depends on what someone is looking for in terms of their therapy. There's so many different types of therapy. And so I hope that those 5 tips answer your question about how long does therapy take. I know I didn't really give you a specific number of weeks, but that would be impossible to do. So if you have any follow-up questions for me, please leave them in the comments section below. I love to hear from you guys. If you have a request for a video, also leave it in the comments. And please like, subscribe, share, tell your friends about my YouTube video. I want to make this information as accessible as possible to everybody, whether they can afford individual therapy or not. That said, if you are interested in working with an individual therapist and you live in the Los Angeles area, I'll leave my website and my phone number on the screen so you can get in touch with me if you're interested in scheduling a phone consultation. I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation to anyone who wants it. And I hope you enjoyed this video. Hope you are doing awesome, and see you next time. Bye-bye!