How to Keep Progressing Between Therapy Sessions
If you have problems you’re working on in therapy you likely feel, sometimes, that it’s hard to keep motivated, and hard to stay focused on progressing in between sessions. What can you do to keep progressing in between your appointments?
Understand how Therapy Works
Many people who start therapy are surprised to find out how much work is involved. And it’s not just the work of showing up to an appointment with a psychologist and spending an hour talking with them. The reality is, the hardest work you do is in between your appointments, in your day-to-day life. Once you realise this, you’re already more likely to get more out of therapy than you were before. That’s a good start, but how do you actually do that work in between sessions?
Ask your Therapist for Guidance
If you’re not sure how to proceed after your appointment, the simplest thing to do is just ask! Your psychologist is there to help you, and that includes giving advice on how you can build on what you cover in your sessions with them.
Schedule Time for Reflection
Most people have busy lives these days, and that makes it easy to put off doing the necessary work in between therapy appointments. Scheduling a small window of time each day in which to reflect on how things are going can help you stay on track. Journalling can be very helpful here, or even just a quick record of how you’re feeling, what kinds of challenges you’ve had that day, and how you handled them.
Set Goals
If you find it hard to stay motivated between therapy sessions, it may be helpful to have some tangible goals to work on each day. The kinds of goals that work best depend on the specific challenges you’re working on, so if this is something that appeals to you, talk with your psychologist about goals that might be useful.
Be Consistent
Therapy is hard work, and one reason for this is that it requires consistency to be effective. It can feel very uncomfortable and difficult sometimes, but as with most things, you get out what you put in. To get the most benefit out of therapy, it’s important to put in the work, and to do it every day.