A lot of it depends on the therapist and the type of therapy. Not all therapists are a like and not all therapies are the same.

I've been in therapy off and on for nearly 30 years (since I was a little kid) there's times I've gone 4-5 years without therapy. After I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder I've seen a few but stopped for various reasons. A few years ago I tried - I got the name of 8 or 9 out of that 2 were seeing new patients and I picked the bad one.

Now I'm in therapy (at the place where I see my shrink you have to be in therapy) and my first therapist was awesome. She'd do a scale of 1-10 to gauge how I was feeling and help me set little mini goals. Most of therapists want to know all about my childhood and work through that and what I want to deal with is day to day coping skills and how to deal with the present. My previous therapist did that but then stuff would come up from the past and we'd deal with it. My current therapist - we're still in the getting to know each other phase and she's nice. I see her once a week right now because i'm having a rough time and dealing with medication changes.

She gives me a good outside perspective on things. She also does DBT Therapy, which has helped a few people I know and I'm going to talk to her and see if she thinks it would be good for me. (DBT is Dialectical behavior therapy) .