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Old Feb 12, 2006, 10:36 PM
Anonymous29319
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You know yourself best. Anything I could sufgeest may not be right for you, or may not be something you like or are ready to do and so on. So instead of sufggestions of what I think you need to work on I give you this info to do what you want with. Take care.

Making goals for yourself is hard but I have found that accomplishing goals in therapy work better when I, the client comes up with the goals which it probably why my past therapist and present one say so what are we doing today?

For starter forget about the diagnosing bull they keep from you. They want to play that game let them do it between them. You don't need to know your diagnosis to do therapy work and set goals for yourself.

first decide why you are in therapy - a person who has never been diagnosed goes into therapy because they have problems they want to fix or something about themselves that they want to change. So pull out some paper and free write (don't pay attention to spelling grammar and so on just put down on paper why you want to be in therapy.

Then based on that short or long paragraph take what the problem is or the thing you dont like about youself and make it into a broad goal statement -

Example (not totally me but a combo of what I have heard over the years of attending support groups)

I dont know why I anm in therapy I dont know what to write this is so stupid how am i supposed to figure out what goals i want to work on they are the therapist they should be telling me thats what igo to them for thats what my insurance is for they are supposed to be helping me and no one is doing that and now they want me to come up with stupid goals yea right as if i am going to tell them i hate myself and that i want to die and i drink too much they find out i do drugs they will lock me up stupid i dont want to get locked up and i dont want to hurt any more either i hate having these thoughts and panic attacks im so stupid i cant even ride a bus without sufficating.....

Now list the problems that got revieled - those problems are your goals -

therapist fix me
First goal -a therapist cant fix me. I want to be more independant

hate myself
Goal 2 I want to like myself.

Suicidal
I don't like feeling like I want to die so I want to learn how to take care of my problems before they get to the point where I feel they can't be fixed except by my dieing.

drinking, drugs,
I want to stop or decrease the amount that I drink and use drugs.

panic attacks
I want to be able to do things without having a panic attack.

Once you have your broad goals during therapy or by yourself you can start making a plan that will enable you to do these things.

Broad goal 1: be more independant in therapy-
narrowed down goal ideas:
Go into therapy with a list of my problems and how I have tried to help myself with those problems that I have had this week..

research the area for community services and classes on my below listed problems - depression anxiety management classes, AA, NA, Drug and alcohol awareness programs. that way I am entering or not them not because she told me to but because I want to or not.

Broad goal 2 I want to like myself
Narrowed down goal ideas:
do activities that make me feel good
keep track of how many times I pput myself down
Change those down statements about myself to three positives

Broad goal 3 Suicidal
Narrowed down goal ideas:
Take depresion management class
take a suicide awareness class so that I can start recognizing my symptoms before they get to that acting on level.
gather emergency numbers of friends, community agencies, and therapist so that when I feel this way I always have someone to talk to.
volunteer on a suicide hot line

broad goal 4 -I want to decrease or stop my drinking and doing drugs
Narrowed down goal ideas:
enroll in AA
enroll in NA
enroll in community rehab agency
take alcohol and drugs awareness class

Broad goal 5: Panic attacks
Narrowed down goal ideas:
Depression anxiety classes
relaxation techniques