[LittleMilly]

I would like to know what therapy is like because i am getting pushed into doing it.

Any opinions

Milly

If you are an adult no one can force you into therapy unless for example the police, court, child protective services department of human services are involved and you have been court mandated into therapy for a certain amount of time or until a therapist deems you are no longer a threat of harm to yourself or others. If you are under 18 years old your parents can look into therapy options and make and attend the intake appointment and force you into therapy.

Otherwise you do not HAVE to attend therapy unless you want to.

What to expect -

an intake appointment where a therapist or therapeutic receptionist will ask questions - name, address, phone number, insurance information, a brief history of any past therapy, and why you need to be in therapy.

If your local mental health agencys are like mine the information the therapy personel took during the intake appointment is given to a supervisor in charge of assigning the case loads to the agency therapists. That supervisor reads over the file and matches the person with the therapist best suited for the types of problems that were discussed during the intake appointment. Then the therapist makes contact with the person needing therapy and sets up the first appointment.

At the first appointment the therapist varifys the information given during intake and asks for more details. During the next few sessions the therapist and client decide on what gaols to work on during the following sessions.

And then its just a matter of the client and therapist working towards and meeting those goals.

Now a therapist can't fix the clients problems or be their buddy buddy type friend. Their job is to challenge the client to look at their problems (including and usually those that the client wants to avoid), from all angles so that the client can find or see the solutions themselves and make changes in their life outside of the therapy room that will make their lives better.

Basically therapy is what the client brings into it. If the client comein with the attitude that they are not going to try to answer the questions or do the work be it journaling, workbooks, researching, art work (whatever the suggestions from the therapist are) and they don't apply the new coping skills discussed in therapy to their out side th therapy room life then they are not going to have a very good therapy experience.

But those clients that go into therapy and actively work on the goals, suggestions and so on are usually the ones that come out of therapy and say they had a great therapy experience.

You might want to make a list before you go to your first appointments of questions to ask the therapist, what you think is the problem, goals you would like to work on and what you are willing to do to accomplish those goals, and what you are not willing to do to accomplish those goals.

good luck and take care.

[gardenergirl]

Excellent summary!

gg

[JustBen]

Very good stuff, myself. I would just say that some therapists don't separate the intake session from the first session. You get in there and give them the information and just start right into treatment.

thank you gg and ben.

[pegasus]

thanks pegasus

[Hopefull]

Wow! Good summary. I find the first session one of the hardest because that is when you get your Dx assigned to you. I get all scared that she will think I am crazy or something. Otherwise, the treatment part is more pleasant because you are working on acheiving your agreed upon goals.

Thanks and I cheat - usually when I have seen a therapist for the first time my soon to be ex therapist goes with me, that way I get to check out the new therapist and the room without having to be on the hot seat the whole time. I think there has been a total of maybe four out of all 19 therapists that I was in "fend for yourself at the first session" situations. And then two of them were so un textbook style ( you know the sit there and stare and write stiffs) anyway two of them were so un like that - One was standing in a domestic violence office where her agency in a nearby city was opening a branch, the place was boxes everywhere and she not even 5 feet tall and had the type of laugh that if you hear it you start laughing and there was so much activity of unpacking and talking of others in the room that when she told me she "doesn't bite" couldn't help but relax and laugh with her. and the other well we had a DHS meeting to go to right after my first session with her so the fomality of session one was thrown aside with "Hi Im so and so and ok we have this meeting (while trying to locate a pen because someone else used her office before my session) what do I need to know walking in to that meeting?" we had no chance of relaxing and talking our time getting to know each other it was jump right in first thing. It broke the ice and the way we worked on so many different things all at once together the "water never had a chance to freeze" so to speak.

[LittleMilly]

Hey,
thanks for all those tips.

If you want to know why people are pushing me into it is because i was bashed at school by some girls. My parents wanted to sue them because they broke my arm. So thats what they attempted to do but then during court someone brought up the fact i cut my wrists and in fact they were only trying to help me so i end up having to go to therapy until the therapist deems i am "no longer a threat to myself" or anyone else.
I dont even get what that means.
*tears*

Thanks again
Milly

what that means is -

with cutting there is a danger - the person can accidentally cut too deep or in the wrong place and end up dead.

Cutting the wrists is a well known suicidal action meaning the person is trying to kill themself. in the united states it is as much against the law to hurt or try to kill youself as it is to hurt or kill someone else. basically suicide =homicide.

when a person cuts there is something else emotional going on - they are upset about something, some one or themselves.

when these kinds of things happen and the law (police and court) get involved they have the choice of two things arrest or commitment or therapy.

I personally think you are lucky the judge chose therapy over commitment to a mental health unit and arresting you. Alot of people in your situation get taken to the ER and immediately put into the hospitals mental health unit.

You may have heard of mental health units being called "the nut ward" and "the looney bin".

Instead of being locked in jail or locked in the nut wards they chose for you to live at home and be able to go to school and do normal everyday activities (which you cant do in jail or in nut wards) and see a therapist until the therapist says you wont hurt yourself either by cutting or by trying to kill yourself and you wont hurt other people.

therapy is definately the better and most helpful of the three choices. And its nothing to be afraid of. you go into a building, tell the receptionist your name and the time of your appointment then you sit in the waiting room. then when its time a therapist has you go to his or her office and sit down and talk to them about the situation and problems that led up to your cutting your wrists. that therapsit is going to ask ALOT of questions from all sides of the situation so that you can learn better ways to take care of your problems so you don't feel like your only chioce is to cut or kill yourself. when the therapist feels you have answered the questions honestly and are now using other ways to take care of your problem so that you won't try to hurt or kill yourself again that therapist will include it in the report to the court. the3 judge will then say you no longer have to go see the therapist.