[Leah123]

I'm a highly motivated, goal-oriented person. Not all my goals are concrete in terms of doing a certain activity but they may such abstract things as discuss a painful topic all the way to graduate college to changing jobs or stop a damaging behavior.

And some of my sessions feel productive and useful and others either don't achieve liftoff or just devolve into feeling stuck or misunderstood or having wasted time in general.

Some folks say there is no wasted time, but I disagree. I think some sessions are spent better than others, now that I and my T know each other well enough.

So I was curious to get a simple reading on how often other clients have "good" sessions versus unhelpful ones. By good, of course, I do not mean happy or light (although sometimes good sessions can be very happy and relieving in my experience), they may be painful or even confusing or upsetting, but there can still be progress, which I would call a good session- when we gain something from the experience.

[RedSun]

75% ish, maybe a bit less. It used to be higher, but I feel like I'm wading through crappy transference stuff at the mo, and it's not helpful (though T may beg to differ )

[eeyorestail]

I'd say 75 percent for mine as well.

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You may disagree. But that doesn't mean it's not true. Just sitting and being can be more productive than simple fact reporting. I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve with this poll.

[Salmon77]

I wrote 75% because I would say that every few sessions, I have one where we don't get very deep into anything. But when I think about it, maybe those are more useful than I think in terms of building a working relationship and taking the pressure off.

[Leah123]

Originally Posted by _Mouse

You may disagree. But that doesn't mean it's not true. Just sitting and being can be more productive than simple fact reporting. I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve with this poll.

I do a lot of sitting and being in session and often find it very helpful. Having some quiet doesn't mean no progress to me. I don't consider that wasted time.

Also, there are multiple truths, it's not a singular- I think we all get to decide when our time is wasted or not.

[stopdog]

I rarely if ever think the appointment is actively productive in any way. I am not certain what productive with a therapist would be.

[pbutton]

I think they're all productive, even if it is in a way that I don't enjoy. Sometimes I learn about the ways I interact with people when I am frustrated, irritated, or bored.

I voted 100% or close. I've been seeing my T for a few months and I feel like each session is building our relationship, and I'm communicating. I probably have different goals than you.

[Leah123]

Originally Posted by Brown Owl

I voted 100% or close. I've been seeing my T for a few months and I feel like each session is building our relationship, and I'm communicating. I probably have different goals than you.

Oh, I definitely count relationship building as very important.

[ruh roh]

I put 100%, but that will probably change over time; if it does, I see it as a positive in a way because it will mean I'm climbing out of this very deep hole and there will be fewer fires to put out. So far, I'm going on 10 months, with weekly sessions. Each one has been worthwhile in its own way. Often, in big ways.

My therapist (and therapy) often surprises me. Yesterday, it came in the final few minutes. I was going to leave and my therapist pointed out I had another five minutes. And that's when something happened that was significant. I must have been wanting to get out of there to avoid it, but now I'm glad my therapist spoke up and I stuck around.

So, a little drop in the percentage would not bother me. I like my therapist quite a lot, so even if it was just more of a check-in, it would still be useful to me.

eta: If I felt misunderstood more than a few times, I would be bothered a lot.

[growlycat]

Mine is 90-95 %

Even if it is just relationship building or a session that is a little repetitive with an earlier one. It all compounds in helpfulness over time.

[atisketatasket]

Not really sure how to judge productive. If I define it as feeling the time spent was worthwhile when I leave, maybe 80%. But some of those feel less worthwhile than others.

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[Leah123]

I'm having a hard time answering my own question. We had an unsuccessful session Monday, hence my preoccupation with how many are productive. And I already know how we both handle conflict and related emotions, so it wasn't illuminating. Just a misfire, really.

If anything, an illustration that I have high expectations and hopes and those don't always pan out, which I don't think we could call news anymore, lol.

Rather, I think our rift caused a bit of a setback, so that costs time to fix. And a lot of time to deal with and work through, and time just being stressed.

And the whole point of the session I didn't have was to have been about exactly that- to help me deal with stress better this week. Ha.

Perhaps my lesson is that the universe believes in irony.

At any rate, we've had a lot of sessions together, probably.... 400 and a similarly high number of emails, and if I had to try and objectively judge how many I found useful (not necessarily pleasant, though some were, but helpful in some way) I suppose I'd say.... 70%? (I might be judging too harshly. I'm the girl who always gets As in class and think the teacher doesn't grade me toughly enough, ha.) It truly is hard to weigh the numbers.

Conversely, I have had single sessions that were as helpful as 10 regular sessions if weighed by value rather than time, such as the one where I was inspired to return to college, so of course, the number isn't everything.

But I appreciate everyone sharing, it's nice to have some perspective.

I have no idea, but I think my last session was very productive. And I have a family session (me, parents, my T, family T) tomorrow and I suspect that will be productive as well. At least, I have something planned that should be productive.

[Cinnamon_Stick]

I voted 100% or close. I have a session every once and a while that doesn't go so good and I don't have time to say what is needed. Most of my sessions go well. I am paying for therapy to be productive and to get the help I need.

I voted 75% or so, but it is probably more than that. Even sessions that are lighter tend to have a productive function, if only to reflect on the positives in my life, which I think is good time spent. I haven't had too many sessions that I walked away feeling like I had wasted my time and money. Most of the time I left having gotten something out of the session that was useful, helpful, supportive, etc.

Originally Posted by Leah123

I'm having a hard time answering my own question. We had an unsuccessful session Monday, hence my preoccupation with how many are productive. And I already know how we both handle conflict and related emotions, so it wasn't illuminating. Just a misfire, really.

If anything, an illustration that I have high expectations and hopes and those don't always pan out, which I don't think we could call news anymore, lol.

Rather, I think our rift caused a bit of a setback, so that costs time to fix. And a lot of time to deal with and work through, and time just being stressed.

And the whole point of the session I didn't have was to have been about exactly that- to help me deal with stress better this week. Ha.

Perhaps my lesson is that the universe believes in irony.

At any rate, we've had a lot of sessions together, probably.... 400 and a similarly high number of emails, and if I had to try and objectively judge how many I found useful (not necessarily pleasant, though some were, but helpful in some way) I suppose I'd say.... 70%? (I might be judging too harshly. I'm the girl who always gets As in class and think the teacher doesn't grade me toughly enough, ha.) It truly is hard to weigh the numbers.

Conversely, I have had single sessions that were as helpful as 10 regular sessions if weighed by value rather than time, such as the one where I was inspired to return to college, so of course, the number isn't everything.

But I appreciate everyone sharing, it's nice to have some perspective.

I think I would find a rift productive. My T and I haven't had any rifts yet. But I think my goals are different to yours. I'm not trying to work on soecific current issues.

[ScarletPimpernel]

I've only been seeing T for 4 months now. I'd say 50% of the time it's productive. The first several sessions were split btwn talking about history and ex-T. That wasn't very productive for me. I didn't get enough time to deal with ex-T and the history, though it helped her, didn't help me. And then we keep having misunderstandings. I think we have spent more time working on our relationship than we have put into my issues, and I don't consider that productive. But some sessions have been good and really helpful. I haven't had difficult sessions minus our miscommunication ones.

[Leah123]

Originally Posted by Brown Owl

I think I would find a rift productive. My T and I haven't had any rifts yet. But I think my goals are different to yours. I'm not trying to work on soecific current issues.

I find some rifts productive, but not necessarily. Just like in other relationships, a disagreement may be illuminating, or simply cloud the air.

My primary overarching goal currently isn't a current one at all actually, though Monday I had needed to get focused and do some proactive work to be ready for this week - I couldn't have a deeper session for a few reasons - I have mine from home and there were some complications.

[AuroraBorealis75]

I don't know if I could really accurately answer that question, because I think that I may have a session that doesn't feel productive to me in the moment, but I may not even be totally aware of the good that may be happening in spite of how I feel about it.

[Leah123]

Originally Posted by AuroraBorealis75

I don't know if I could really accurately answer that question, because I think that I may have a session that doesn't feel productive to me in the moment, but I may not even be totally aware of the good that may be happening in spite of how I feel about it.

I know what you mean. I've certainly had very painful sessions that were helpful but only in retrospect, while others were just misfires and easier to judge.

I would say to just consider how productive sessions are in total- looking back, not right in the moment if you often find your opinion shifts over time. Thanks!

T and i chit chat a lot and goof around a lot, but every session accomplishes something good.

[atisketatasket]

I had a session today. I didn't feel at the time it was productive - I left quite annoyed, not at No. 2 but with myself - but now that I'm home and winding down from the day, I see that it might have been more productive than I thought.

I said 100% or close. In one way or another, it always seems to work out for good somehow. I'm sure tomorrow will too even though I am gnawing-my-nails nervous about seeing her again.