How to get the most out of your therapy

Engaging fully in tasks between sessions
When working with your practitioner, they will usually give you some work to do in between sessions.  The reason for this is that we want to maximise the benefit you get from the sessions and this will mean practicing some techniques, or learning new skills or information.  This will enable you to make real changes in your day to day life, which is what most patients tell us is important to them. It is important that you carry this work out, as we cannot make changes for you.  If you are unable to do this work, please discuss it with your practitioner. Research tell us that people who don’t put things into pratice between sessions are far less likely to benefit from therapy.

Regularly attending appointments
Regular attendance to appointments is very important.  Having large gaps between sessions can make therapy less effective.  If you are struggling to attend appointments, please discuss this with your practitioner as now may not be the right time for this kind of work.  If you do not attend an appointment without letting us know, we will contact you and if we do not hear from you within 7 days we will discharge you back to your GP. If you do rearrange an appointment, and then do not attend we will assume that you no longer wish to continue and discharge you.

Setting clear goals
An important part of therapy is setting realistic goals. This will allow you and your practitioner to ensure you are working towards something meaningful to you.  It can be useful to think about what goals you may have before you start your sessions.  It can be useful to set goals using the SMART acronym;

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timely

Some SMART goals:
To be able to get on the bus on my own to go to Workington before Christmas
To be able to plan a trip to London with my friends for my Birthday in 3 months time

Non-SMART goals:
To be happy
To not feel anxious any more
To get a job by the weekend

Download a goal setting sheet

Goal Setting Sheet (16kB)

Being honest with yourself and your practitioner
It’s important for you to feel that you can be honest with your practitioner, not only when things are going well but also when they are not.  You practitioner cannot help you through rough patches if they don’t know you are experiencing them.  We want you to get the most out of your sessions and this means that you need to tell us if things aren’t working for you.

Addressing problems that arise during therapy
Sometimes problems arise in therapy that we need to work through.  Perhaps you are having difficulties doing the work between sessions, or cannot attend appointments. Perhaps you don’t feel that you are getting on with your practitioner for some reason.  It is important that we work through these problems as we don’t want you to feel that you need to drop out. If you do not feel you can discuss these problems with your practitioner, then you can contact us on 0300 123 9122 and we can arrange for you to work with a different practitioner.