Hi SingDanceRunLife, welcome to PC. That is very brave of you to write the letter and seek help for yourself. It sounds like your mother is concerned and willing to get you the help you want at this time. That is really positive!

I have a 13 and a half year old daughter who is in therapy, so I can share a little of my experience of my teen aged daughter being in therapy.

Her therapist does not tell me anything they talk about. It is completely confidential and she has made sure my daughter knows that, so she can feel secure about sharing when they meet. (However, if my daughter were harming herself or contemplating suicide, the therapist would have to tell me.) Make sure you go over the confidentiality with your T at your first session. In retrospect, I wish my daughter had gone to a family therapist. This person could provide individual therapy to her, but to work on some things, such as better family communication, she could have called in other family members and that would have been so helpful. But this T is not family-trained, so she only sees my daughter individually. Anyway, if you think that at some point you might like to work on family communication issues, you might want to start with a family therapist (but you can also do only individual therapy with a family therapist--it doesn't mean other family members have to be involved, just that there is future potential for that if it is needed).

You can talk to your therapist about how long and often to see her/him. I think to start off, many therapists like to meet weekly with their clients.

If you have a preference about whether your therapist is male or female (many people do), please tell your mom so she can take that into account when she looks for a therapist for you. A good source of recommendations can be your family doctor.

Best of luck to you! Please stop by here and let us know how you are doing.