Individual therapy is the best way to go deeply into yourself with a guide. I’ve taken this journey for myself (which I consider essential before guiding anyone else) and in thirty-seven years I’ve been the guide for hundreds of others. I also have put myself back in therapy when something comes up in my life that needs help.
The first session affords a chance to get acquainted and for us together to decide if we can be a good team for you. Sometimes, for the client, this can take several sessions, and that’s OK. As for me, I can tell that first session. I set up 60 minutes for the first session and a the half way mark we pause, and you get to decide if you want to complete the session. or not. If you choose to leave, you don’t owe me anything, if you choose to stay you do owe for the entire hour. I do this in order to help people shop around for the right therapist. It’s important to get the right one for you, and it’s normally pretty expensive to shop around.
Your job in therapy is to present the WHAT of what you want to work on, an my job is to provide the HOW we work on it. I draw on my experience and different therapy approaches I have learned over the years. I also figure out what of me is going to fit best with you.
I am willing to talk with you briefly over the telephone, or to email if you prefer, to help you decide if you want to make that first appointment.
I can give you a beginning overview of what your therapy might look like once I have met with you. And in the end, you get to decide if you want to work with me.
I have suicidal thoughts and actions. I need help.. ______________________
Dear Nancy,
I am assuming you are writing because you don’t know how to go for help. If you can afford it, I would suggest you go to a therapist who knows about depression and assures you he/she can help. You will likely also go to a psychiatrist to get medication. I would recommend you get the ‘big guns’ as I call it to fight a depression that has gotten so bad. It’s dangerous to feel this way, and it’s miserable. You shouldn’t have to feel so bad, depression is very treatable. The combination of “talk therapy” which you would do with the therapist, and medication, which the psychiatrist would provide is the best way to deal with depression.
If you can’t afford to go to a therapist and you don’t have insurance that would help you pay for it, then find a community program the services low income people. They are financed by government and set prices low income people can afford. They have psychiatrists too. Here in Madison Wisconsin there are several choices. Ask at the public library, or look it up on line or even the yellow pages.
You might have manic depression which means your mood swings up and down, and it’s important to find that out so you get treated properly.
Good luck to you, and write again if you have more specific questions.