counselling sessions advice please

[whatnow47]

Hi everyone

I have now had 4 sessions of counselling each lasted about an hour. I was just wondering what I am meant to achieve.

I really like her and was able to talk easily (I talked non stop). She basically confirmed all the things that I had suspected regarding an abusive environment I was in. She wanted to know about my own childhood and confirmed that there were a few things that weren't quite right there with boundaries. She gave me tips to distract myself from flashbacks and triggers, and help with good sleep techniques. I already knew these strategies for coping and I am trying and already feel a little better. I think I just needed validation from someone other than my husband or a friend.

She has booked my in for my 5th session but I am not really sure I need more therapy. She would like to discuss boundaries next week. But I think I have already put in place my boundaries by telling my abusers to eff off. Nothing else left to talk about as I have told all the stories and how it made me feel. The sessions are quite pricey and wondering if I should stop now or would that be premature?

Thanks for any advice

I think ultimately you always know what's best for you. If you don't feel like you need anymore sessions you don't have to go. I quit 8 weeks ago and know in my heart that I'm done for now after four years.

I know it’s expensive but I’d urge you to have at least one more and discuss what you’ve said here-it may be that this is exactly what you needed to do at the moment and you can move on. It may also be the point at which you’ve identified that there’s a load of stuff roaming around-and you want to begin to explore its impact on you... if your therapist is good, she’ll walk through that decision with you and it will still be your decision.

If you're looking for help with trauma/ flashbacks you might be better of with a therapy that helps to reprocess the trauma rather than just 'manage' it.
If you don't feel you are getting anything from it, don't be afraid to say- a good therapist welcomes feedback.
Good luck whatever you decide to do

It depends if you are getting something out of it. Therapy can be long term or short term depending on the issue.

My main reason for therapy is that a lifetime of being bullied in school and taken advantage of in adulthood has left me struggling to form healthy relationships and with severe attachment and trust issues. So for me the therapy IS the relationship with the therapist. The idea being that the issues I have in personal relationships will come up naturally in the therapeutic relationship and we can work on them as they occur. So this is by definition long term therapy.

I use a forum a lot as a sort of support group and I have seen a few people come and go who have your run of the mill, textbook anxiety and have simply done the standard 12 sessions of CBT, been given the tools, taught the techniques and are putting them into practice and feeling a lot better. This would be short term therapy as once they have learnt what they needed to learn, are able to use it effectively and have supportive friends and family, there isn't much more that they really need from the counsellor.

Thank you I appreciate your feedback. I will go for at least one more session and see what she thinks.