There are hundreds of questions about therapy. Some of them would require an entire blog post in order to answer. But there's several that can be answered in just a paragraph or two. (Keep in mind that I specialize in treating trauma, anxiety, and perfectionism. Therapists in other specialties might have different answers to these questions). To get answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about therapy, continue reading below.

Will a therapist tell you if you have a diagnosis? 

The answer to this one is, “sometimes.” There are several reasons why a therapist might not tell you your diagnosis. Sometimes a diagnosis isn't actually required, so there isn’t one. Sometimes the therapist is concerned that if they were to talk to you about the diagnosis, it would increase some of your symptoms. This is especially true with disorders that are heavily stigmatized, such as Borderline Personality Disorder, Schizoaffective Disorder and other disorders that may cause an increase in feelings of shame and worthlessness upon diagnosis. 

If you're curious if your therapist has diagnosed you with something, go ahead and ask them. You always have the right to know what is in your chart, and that includes your diagnosis. Additionally, if you're using insurance to pay for therapy, you can look at the claim. Your diagnosis will be listed in the claim. If your therapist hasn't given you a diagnosis, it's probably because a diagnosis is not actually required to provide you treatment. Most of the time a diagnosis is only required to provide treatment if you are using insurance. Insurance companies will only pay for therapy if the client has been formally diagnosed with a mental disorder. If you are not using insurance to pay for your therapy, then it's possible that your therapist has not diagnosed you with anything and is simply treating the symptoms that you came in to see them for. And that's totally okay. It's not required that you have a diagnosis in order to benefit from therapy.

Do therapists take notes after session? 

Therapists are legally required to document what happens in every session. So, the answer to this is, “yes, therapists do take notes after session.” Some therapists take notes in session. But if your therapist is clearly not taking notes, doesn't write anything down, and isn’t typing anything, rest assured they are writing down notes, probably as soon as you leave. Documentation, which is called “progress notes” in therapy, is required for all clients. Clients who pay directly typically have less documentation because the documentation requirements are significantly less when you’re not using insurance . Clients who are using insurance typically have a lot of documentation because insurance companies require significant documentation as proof that you are actually providing healthcare to the client. Regardless, your therapist is legally required to write at least some kind of note after the session.

Why is therapy only once per week? 

Clients ask me this question a lot. There isn't one singular reason why therapy is once per week. There are several reasons, and each therapist will have a slightly different reason for doing this. The main reason for me is because meeting with the client more often would deny the client the opportunity to work on the skills outside of session. For example, if you knew that you could meet with your therapist every other day, you might not be as incentivized to develop skills to cope with difficult symptoms between sessions because you would know that you'll just talk to them tomorrow at the latest. It's also possible that if we were to see clients more frequently, that we would inadvertently create a dependency in the client. We would risk the client not being able to function in a healthy way unless they had consistent contact with us.

If you're in crisis, sometimes your therapist will offer more sessions in a week and usually this will happen for a few weeks, until you are no longer in crisis. That's totally okay and it's up to each therapist and client to work together to decide exactly how they want to do that. But if a client is living their day to day life and there's no major crisis going on, it's important that the client has the opportunity to think about what was talked about in session and work on any homework or any skills that they were assigned to develop outside of session. It's not because therapists don't like you, and it's not because your therapist doesn't want to see you any more often than they have to. We meet with clients once a week because that is the best cadence to ensure growth.

Do therapists think about clients between sessions? 

Yes, we do think about clients between sessions. I tend to think about my clients when I know that they have something big going on in their life that day, like a job interview, or if it's their birthday, or something that I know they are looking forward to. Sometimes I see memes and think about clients who I know would find them entertaining. Sometimes I think of them when I come across a tv show, book, or movie that I know they like. I definitely think about my clients in between sessions. 

We are taught in graduate school to develop skills to ensure that we are able to keep ourselves mentally well and healthy, so that we can do our job. One of the ways that we do this is to try to limit how often we worry about clients outside of session. .It's common for us to think about clients outside of session, but if you get the sense that your therapist isn't worried about you outside of session, that is actually a good sign. It means that the therapist truly does believe that you are going to be able to achieve your goals. It also means that the therapist is taking care of themselves to ensure that they can provide you the best level of care possible.

If you’re in Colorado and you’re struggling with anxiety, perfectionism, overworking, or with past trauma, reach out. I offer a free, 15 minute phone consultation. It’s no obligation, so contact me today.