Trust - The currency of the therapeutic process.

If you’ve ever spent time in a therapist’s office, you know about the variety of emotions that therapy can bring up.  Some days you wish your session would never end and on others, you can’t wait to hit the door.  When a person comes to therapy, they are expecting to work through some issues and feel better.  However, sometimes with deep issues, the feeling better part doesn’t come as fast as you might like.

Therapists know that sometimes it’s our jobs to push a client and that can be uncomfortable for them.  They will at times feel frustrated with us or even angry.  But it’s important to know that all of this is ok.  It does not necessarily mean you are not getting along with your therapist or that the therapist doesn’t like you.  It doesn’t mean that you’re beyond help or that you should give up.  It means you’ve just got to trust the process. 

And trust is often a difficult thing for our clients, another thing that us therapists know.  It’s why we go to such lengths to make sure your sessions are private and that we check in to make sure you are making the progress you told us you want to make.  However, in order to make progress, you may have to go out of your comfort zone and say, think or do things you normally don’t like to do.

Trusting the process also means not rushing the process.  Therapy of all kinds, even the brief therapies, take a certain amount of time.  You will gain the insights you need at your own pace.  You will experience healing when your brain is ready to.  You will often change in very slow and small ways.  But remember, small changes over time can be very big things. 

Trusting the process also means trusting yourself.  Trusting that you can heal yourself.  That you can be a better, healthier person.  Trusting that you have the skills to get there or at least can learn them with some effort.  Trusting that you can change is important to the process of therapy.