Navigating Healing: What to Expect from Your Therapist on Long Island
What you can expect from starting therapy on Long Island
You found a therapist on Long Island
You had your consultation call with them, asked all of your questions and you have an intake scheduled. Now what? You may be wondering what you can expect from therapy and this is normal.
What to expect from Long Island Therapy
What to expect in the first session with your Long Island Therapist:
The first session with your new therapist is called the intake session. During the intake, the therapist will generally review their policies with you such as their cancellation and billing policies. Additionally, they usually will go over the expectations for treatment including what you can expect from the therapist and what the therapist will expect from you. The rest of the time is typically dedicated to learning more about you, your history and the reason that you’re seeking therapy.
Here are the specifics of what you can expect when starting therapy on Long Island with me:
During our consultation call, if we decide that we are a good fit, we will set up the appointment for your intake session.
Shortly after making this appointment, my practice will send you a link with all of the instructions on how to get yourself registered as a client. When registering, you will
Review and sign off on all of my practice’s policies and agreements: this enables you to take your time reviewing them and gather any questions you may have which you can ask during the intake.
Complete the intake paperwork: this is where you provide all of the information about yourself, your history, why you’re seeking treatment, etc. Doing this ahead of time really helps for us to make the most of our intake session together. I will be able to review your intake information before your session and this makes our time together much more efficient!
During our intake, I will review all of the policies and agreements you already had read and give you an opportunity to ask any questions you may have on them.
Once we get through the agreements, I will dive right into your intake paperwork and take the rest of the session to learn as much as I can about you. During this time, I usually do give some information and insight that I have regarding the specifics of what you’re struggling with. I want you to leave the session feeling hopeful, comfortable and confident in my ability to help you as well as in the therapy process.
I do take some time to review what some of your goals are for treatment. We begin exploring what you want your life to look like 3 months, 6 months or a year in the future, assuming therapy is doing its job and working. More on this later.
Creating a Personalized Treatment Plan:
Once I learn more about you and your specific struggles, I will be creating and implementing a personalized treatment plan specifically for you. I will draw from evidence-based treatment approaches as well as what works in the real world. You will be treated as an individual, not as a diagnosis.
You will be an active participant in your own recovery and we will work as a team! There are 168 hours in any given week and it is important that you know how to take what we talk about in therapy outside into your world. To do this, every session, we will work together to figure out what the next right step for you is to continue your treatment outside of the therapy session. Some of my clients refer to this as their “homework” or their goals for the week. It can be in the form of a journal entry, reading something, having a difficult conversation with someone, implementing a new therapeutic tool or something else. We want to keep you gently moving forward in treatment and recovery - and this “homework” helps us to do just that!
Progress Tracking and Adjusting the Treatment Plan:
Remember when I mentioned that in the intake session, we take some time to review your goals for therapy and how life would look in the future if therapy is working? We will have checkpoints during our work together to check back in on these goals. We will make sure we are making progress toward these goals and if not, we will make adjustments in your treatment plan so that we can focus on the work that can get you to those goals. This is also a time to assess if you have new goals for therapy. These checkpoints really help us to make sure that we are continuing to stay on track with your treatment and making progress towards your goals.
Building Coping Strategies for Long-Term Wellness:
Throughout the course of therapy, some of the things you will learn include
coping strategies to help you navigate life’s struggles
new ways of thinking
how to deal differently and more effectively in different situations, especially with other people
And many more life skills that can help you navigate life more effectively and manage the stressors that come along.
Ready to Start Therapy on Long Island?
If you are ready to take the next step to starting Therapy on Long Island, you can contact me here to set up a free 15-minute phone consultation. During this call, I will learn about what you’re looking for and what you’re struggling with. From there, I will let you know if I believe that I’d be able to help and, if not, I will do my best to point you in the direction of someone who may be a better fit.
If you want to learn more about how I can help you, click here.