# Therapy - how often?



## Maike (Sep 29, 2004)

Hey guys

I started seeing a psychologist last week and have made an appointment to go see her in 1 weeks time. The only thing is that even after the rebate it's still quite a big chunk out of my pay so I was thinking about going fortnightly so I can manage it financially.

Do you think going every fortnight is enough, does anyone here go less than once a week, and what sort of results do you get?

Thanks xxx


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## Danu (Aug 13, 2006)

I go once a week and this is good for me. When I stretch it out to once every two weeks, I'm not mindful of my situation, I forget the CB techniques, my past and how it relates to my present situation, the broad/forgiving/generous/loving perspective of myself I get from therapy and my therapist. then...bad stuff happens, lol.


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## yeah_yeah_yeah (Mar 27, 2007)

Every fortnight could be just fine. When I started it was once a week then chamged to fortnightly - but if you do plenty of exercises (ESPECIALLY the 5 column mood logs) in between times then it will help bolster you through to the next session.

I always aimed to go to my sessions with plenty of 'homework' to go through - you will progress much faster if you do. With CBT you can't passively expect the therapy to do the work for you - you MUST do the exercises set. Studies using thousands of research subjects confirm that patients who have a strong desire to help themselves and do the exercises get better more quickly and remain better than those that just listen / talk to the therapist or read notes.

Congratulations on finding a therapist!

Ross


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## Maike (Sep 29, 2004)

Thanks for the advice, I might go weekly for a few weeks and then go down to fortnightly and then do the homework and heaps of excercises at home, hopefully I will still progress...if only money wasn't such an issue!


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## yeah_yeah_yeah (Mar 27, 2007)

You will progress ... In fact, some people get quite addicted (in a good way!). You might even find that you get so much out of the mood diaries that you start writing them for all sorts of things .... I swear in my first few months of CBT I generated an entire book .... my therapist called me a CBT athlete!

I still use the 5 column diaries now, and the belief work. I have also found that putting some of the beliefs up on this site helps - because it commits you to them and other people sometimes chime in with thoughts and help.

Anyways good luck

Ross


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## Maike (Sep 29, 2004)

Cool! It's good to hear about your positive experiences! With the 5 column thing is that like the Activating Event, Beliefs, Consequences, Disputation and Balanced thinking? I have done an 8 week CBT before and have just dug up my old files, I can't believe my thoughts are pretty much the same 5 years later! I think I've got some work to do!


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## yeah_yeah_yeah (Mar 27, 2007)

Hehehe yes I find that too! Dig up old sheets and go "blimey! I'm still banging on about THAT....". At least it shows that those core beliefs are truly what makes us unhappy. Once we kick those into touch we will feel much better!

Yes the titles you quoted there are similar to what I've used. Mine were called Siutation, Automatic Thoughts and Images, A mood rater, Alternative Rational Thoughts, and an action plan. I;ve also used one that had an 'evidence for' and an 'evidence against' coulmn, which is very helpful for when you write the rational alternative, It gets pre-packed in the form of 'although x may be true, sometimes y can happen'. Makes the rewrite a little bit easier.

Have a boogie for being so positive :boogie 

Ross


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## Maike (Sep 29, 2004)




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