[Alishia88]

What do you think? I´ve read it more than once. That you should start seeing changes in your feelings after the first 5 sessions....

?

I dunno. I felt a lot worse at first. I think it was two months for me, before I felt noticeably better.

I've seen that, too. With ex-T I wasn't feeling better after 24 sessions (with my first T, whom I saw for about 6 months, 10 years ago, I don't think I was feeling any better either - but I terminated very abruptly with her so that might colour my remembrance).

Current T I haven't had five sessions with yet, so couldn't say. It does seem weird to me to make that kind of firm statement about something as fluid and varied as therapy.

What are your own thoughts?

[bamapsych]

Some people go to one session and feel good enough that they never go back. For me personally, I felt worse before I got better

[Crescent Moon]

Originally Posted by Alishia88

What do you think? I´ve read it more than once. That you should start seeing changes in your feelings after the first 5 sessions....

?

Sure didn't work like that for me! Maybe that works if your issue is simple - say you've got a great support network, but you have anxiety about meeting new people that's interfering with your ability to do your job. That kind of thing might get better in five sessions.

But those of us who end up on this board wouldn't be here if all we had was a simple issue.

[pbutton]

by 5 sessions I was deeply mired in the "OMG WHY DO I KEEP THINKING ABOUT THIS GUY??" stage. Not fun. AT ALL.

[taylor43]

For me it seems worse!

[Alishia88]

"What are your own thoughts?"

Well I´m not so sure. I also read it in a book "therapy revolution" on how to find a good therapist.

Well, for me, I have seen quite a few therapists and some made me feel a whole lot better after the first session. Not so much after that 2. session.
I have wondered why.
I suppose it might be that in the first session I get to reflect on everything that happened to me in the last 3 years, which I consider to be my main problemsource.
And the therapist is somtimes very interested and asks interesting questions about these confusing times.
After that first session, they usually sit back and expect me to talk and take the lead and I´m not sure what to talk about and end up confused, getting caught up in details that aren´t really so important.

Also, I think, somtimes feeling worse, I do experience as "feeling better" eg when i get home and feel really tired and exhausted, I feel that something clicked, whereas when i get home and not feel like much happened, i feel frustrated

[kiki86]

i don't think 5 sessions is anywhere near enough. but i suppose it depends what your problem is. for me after 5 sessions i was just getting to the "gets worse" part of "it gets worse before it gets better"

[SoupDragon]

Think it took about 18 months for me to notice an improvement. But have major trust issues and I think it took that long to just gain a little bit of trust in T.

So I guess it depends on what the issues are, my understanding is that simple phobias, mild depression can be improved in a few sessions, but more complex problems may take a lot longer.

[healed84]

Not for me.. I am pretty sure that after 5 sessions I was way worse.. Anxiety was at its peak then. It wasn't until rather recently that I really started to fell better.

i took almost a year before i could even speak a sentence with more than four words.

[skeksi]

I definitely felt better after five sessions. Not because we made any serious headway into my problems, but because I felt like I had someone on my side, someone listening and caring, and not feeling all alone made a huge difference. Also, T made a comment about how I coped in childhood and how that supported my family (although it hurt me), which made me feel so much less like a screw-up. It foretold his entire attitude during my therapy, actually--an acceptance like nothing I've ever encountered before.

[Nightlight]

When I first saw my T (and she's the first T I've seen) I'd been at rock bottom for 6 months, without the slightest improvement. I didn't think there was even the tinest speck of hope left for me. I felt a tiny little bit better after the first session. I think it's a really individual thing.

[BonnieJean]

I went thru a whole lot the first year of therapy. I only began to feel any better between 13-14 months.

Seriously... Five sessions? Wow. Thats unrealistic.
It takes as long as it takes. Thats all.

[trdleblue]

I've been in t for about six months. I think I've made some improvements in things, but I wouldn't say that I'm feeling tremendously better, and I think that I probably have a long way to go. After five sessions I was actually starting to feel emotions again, and it wasn't good. I still don't know which is worse - being completely numb to things or feeling the bad stuff.

Except for perhaps specific phobias, I think it probably takes longer then five sessions for most people to start feeling a lot better.

[elliemay]

I think you should feel something after 5 sessions but I don't know if it's better.

[nicoleb2]

better... at 5 sessions>?? No way, not me. I was still getting to know my t then. I've been seeing her for 6 years, and though logically, i know i am better than i was, I still have a LONG ways to go

I'm 5 1/2 months into 2nd T and I haven't even cried or talked about the past... We've been putting out immediate fires first. I do think it depends on the type of therapy as well.

[tkdgirl]

After 5 sessions I definately did not feel better as I was discovering all these issues that I didn't even realize I had. I think therapy is too unique of a process to put any type of objective measure as to when you should begin to "feel better", which is a very subjective term.

[sunrise]

My first T said something kind of similar, that I would be done with therapy with her long before the 20 yearly sessions that my insurance permitted ran out. She was totally wrong! After 20 sessions, we were not done at all. I think they pull these statements out of a bag based on their "average client" and don't bother telling you that some of their clients take a shorter time and some take a longer time. So take what she said with a grain of salt. If you haven't started to feel better in 5 sessions, don't interpret that as a sign that therapy is not working or you should look for a new T.

With my second T, by the way, I felt immediately better after just one session. It was pretty magical. I wasn't all better, but he gave me hope I could solve my problems, and having hope is huge!

Good luck with your therapy.

[critterlady]

I felt better after my first session, but only in a "I think I like him and I can work with him" kind of way.

After 5 sessions, I was only just beginning to feel connected to him. Six months in, I'm feeling much worse, because I've opened myself up to him and let some of the really hard, totally walled-off stuff come out. But I feel better, too, for the same reason. Hard to explain, but that's how it is.

[lostmyway21]

I have to say I was feeling good in our first five sessions. BUT once we started working on stuff, and it wasn't long after, things got really bad really fast.

[ECHOES]

Originally Posted by Alishia88

What do you think? I´ve read it more than once. That you should start seeing changes in your feelings after the first 5 sessions....

?

Isn't that a funny statement?!
It sounds like there should be a crystal ball on the table.











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