How common is long term therapy?

From reading on this forum, it seems like most of the people are in it long term but from other resources it seems that people rarely stay for more than few months.
I know it depends on the issues too but do people usually know how long they're going to be in it when they start?
I don't really know anybody else that goes to therapy, so I was wondering what you're experiences are.

My T's goal for me is to be in short-term therapy with her until she retires. She only does "long-term" (in my case weekly) for 2 years. Ex-T original limit was 16 sessions. All my other Ts didn't have a set limit. Though one previous T did taper down with me too. But in that situation, I had a lot of support outside of therapy.

When I started I didn't know what to expect, but I kind of figured it wasn't going to be a quick fix because I should have started years ago. There was no way I could have afforded it much before now though. My therapist thinks we'll be at this a while. He has another client (male, I think) that was also in an emotionally abusive relationship and he's been seeing him for 6 years. I don't think, at least I hope not, and I don't get that vibe, that he's milking me for money. I have a lot of stuff to unpack and a lot of damage to try to undo from my relationship.

I told him once that I had read on here where someone's therapist said most people only stay for 8 - 10 sessions (because we were on session 154 or something like that). He apparently really pays attention to this stuff because he said his clients tend to stay longer (is that a good thing or a bad thing?) and started talking about mode and median. He must track the statistics.

I think most people do only go for a few sessions or a few months until they get some symptom relief or get pissed at the therapist and then they quit. My suspicion is that this forum isn't a representative sample of people in therapy.

I've been going off and on for years. Sometimes I'm not sure it's all that helpful, but sometimes it is, and I don't get complete symptom relief from medication for my recurrent depression. So I keep going. I do change therapists fairly regularly. It seems like I get stuck with the same one all the time. I've never had a therapist kick me out of therapy. It seems like as long as I keep paying, they'll keep seeing me. I guess I can't blame them. I do think insurance companies try to limit the number of sessions sometimes.

Idk how common but initially my t guessed 8 sessions max. He didnt realize all the emotional issues i had and nearly a yr later I'm still there

I think MB is right. Among the folks I know, most do therapy for less than a year. Many have done several short, maybe 3-6 months duration, over the course of their lifetime.

Among the folks here, longer term is certainly common.

My first T was 2 years, second T was a year but she panicked often that it was taking too long and I should be fixed. Final T I see now has been 1 year and she has made it clear that it is a process and takes as long as it takes

I don't think short term therapy can fix long term issues.

What is long term and what is short term?

I’m coming up on 7 years with the same T; no plans on stopping any time soon.

I started therapy when I was in my teens after a near fatal suicide attempt
I’m now in my forties and I have been in therapy most of my life. I don’t know if I’m an outlier because of the severity of my issues or something else. Many of those years were with the same therapist
Current has been a little over 2 years. I don’t see ending therapy any time soon. People might think that is weird but I feel I need it and still benefit from it.

Ps that reminds me. Today t told me that I am unusual for my commitment to therapy. Most people drop out after a few months because it is harder and more painful than they realized and many people don’t think the pain and work is worth it.

I have no idea what is 'normal.' My first appointment with a T was my mom's T after I graduated from college. She was awful to me, and I was in a severe depression, so I agreed to see him. I lasted 3 sessions before I was like "noooo too weird."

My next T was 5 years later, and lasted 5.5 years. Regret the last 1.5-2 probably.

My current T is 2.5 years.

My last and current T never mentioned anything about how long it would take.

I also thought I was going go for about 6 months or so and 2 and half years later and I'm still discovering new issues.

I think it depends on individual. I meant short term as a certain number of session, few months, maybe a year? Long term probably more than a year and no ending in sight.

My first therapist thought I'd see her for about 12 to 14 sessions (CBT) as that was her average patient duration for anxiety disorders other than PTSD.

Then we uncovered abuse in my past plus my anxiety disorders were not responsive to CBT treatment due to their emotional strength.

She transferred me to her colleague who does schema therapy, ACT and DBT. Schema therapy is considered "long term" treatment (with a minimum of 50 sessions in clinical trials) because it's formulated for people with chronic MH issues and/or personality disorders which are commonly caused by chronic abuse and neglect.

I think this forum skews heavily toward longer term therapy because we more likely have backgrounds which cause attachment issues. People who merrily sail on their way after 1 to 20 sessions have no need to find support regarding their therapy.

In all the personal blogs and documentaries I've read, clients with trauma histories (neglect is also trauma) tend to spend longer times in therapy. At least a year... several years etc. Even if they "got into therapy early" in their teens.

Yes there are those 8 to 20 sessions of trauma focused therapies (most commonly TF-CBT, Trauma Systems Therapy) in the clinical literature for children who have been abused, but that's "early intervention" and issues are expected to re-emerge around puberty etc. And of course there are those kids who have been in therapy for longer periods because their issues are complex.

Of course not everyone with trauma needs long therapy...there's a blog talking about "the 3 session wonder for PTSD"...

Then one can be untraumatised but have conditions which relapse regularly...not uncommon to need supportive therapy for years to manage the conditions.

Then there's also the goals of one's therapy. Is it simply focusing on symptom reduction or on the deeper underlying issues? Jonathon Shelder has written many papers proving that psychodynamic therapy can outperform CBT because the gains last longer.

Quote from Trauma & Attachment Therapy: Long-Term Clients

(Not saying I like her tone...)

Why does that seem incredibly patronizing? I hope my therapist doesn't see me that way.

It is incredibly patronizing. What a jerk.

I don't know what is "typical". I have DID and I do know the "typical" length of therapy for the treatment of DID issues is around 7 years. There is no other treatment for DID other than psychotherapy. I can't imagine going to therapy for only 8 sessions could help anyone with anything at all.

Yeah, I don't like the tone if the writer either. Fortunately my therapist sees it as "It takes as long as it takes" and isn't all "omg you're at session X, why are you not "fixed" yet?"

Yeah, my T tells me that she meets me where I am at, and as long as I want to continue coming to therapy, she is there for me.

I knew it was going to be a long term commitment when I started.
It depends on how do the wounds to how long the therapy.
And what the wound contains.

My therapist never gave really a time limit. But I think it varies on why you start. If you have long term mental illness, trauma, and so on I think you can expect long term.
If its from a recent event or rupture in your life, maybe short term.

I didn't have expectations on how long I'd be in therapy, but I did expect to make progress, when I didn't I quit.

In my country there are 4 'billing codes' that insurance offers: up to 5 sessions, up to 10, up to 15 (that's for "long" as well as "chronic") and "specialized" which is: longer.

That doesn't include follow-ups (or pre-care or just care) by your GP and GP's psychiatric nurse; that's GP care. But that nurse is for support, check-ins, maybe cheerleading; not for therapy. Although I think seeing that person can be long-term low-frequency.

What I meant to say was: most people are done within 15 sessions. Most up-to-5/10/15-session therapists don't treat 16+ session people; not sure if that has to do with registrations or what. Probably.

I've been seeing a T for over 15 yrs now. Both T's have the mind set that everyone can benefit from therapy, and there is no time limit. The only thing that they have suggested is adjusting the length of time between sessions according to how things are going. Certainly, they have clients for 5 to 15 sessions and then that's it, done. They have a specific issue...over and out. For clients like me with recurring bouts of depression (varying degrees) and terrible anxieties (due to early childhood traumas), issues keep arising that become too overwhelming. I have taken "breaks" where we space our sessions out 4 weeks or so, but when needed, I go back every week or every 2 weeks for a while to get back on track.
Current T has a client that's been with her for 20 years. Checks in every year with her, or more often when needed. There should be no shame in that. Life happens and I think having that support there is a good thing.
I think it's the stigma of being in therapy that makes us think it's a bad thing to do it long term.
I understand, however, that I am both lucky and blessed to have a good job and good insurance to be able to afford therapy. Although my job is high stress and I think is a large part of why I can't handle the rest of life...
I am hoping that when I retire I can quit therapy.

I’ve been seeing my t for just over a year, and he’s already told me that I’m one of his most long term clients at the moment. I think it differs with every therapist though.