Seeing results from psychotherapy

Oftentimes, patients ask me, "How long will it take until I begin to see results? How long before I start to see tangible, real changes in my life?" This is a fair question. Therapy, even though it has become more and more accepted in recent years, is still a challenging business. If our health insurance or "Mutuelle" doesn’t reimburse the sessions, they may have to be paid out of pocket. This means that for many, therapy is a considerable investment. A financial investment, but moreover, a time investment too. We have to carve out of our already too-busy days not just the hour spent sitting in a therapist’s office but also the transportation time to go there and back. On top of this, good therapists have few available slots, so if they have an opening in the middle of the day that isn’t quite ideal, we take it anyway, cutting back on time elsewhere. When all this adds up, committing to therapy can mean quite a few sacrifices. Therefore, when and how do we see a return on our investment?

The answer is: it depends. Because each one of us is unique, it’s on a case-by-case basis. Many of my patients have reported feeling massive relief after a real "A-ha!" moment that occurred during the very first session. So is one session all it takes? For some, the answer is a definite yes. However, even those lucky ones may, if they so choose, come back and explore further the eye-opening experience they had at the very beginning of therapy. Others prefer a more regular rhythm, once every two weeks or once a month. If a patient is undergoing a particularly stressful period in their life, I am, of course, available for weekly sessions. These never last long, luckily, because as soon as there is palpable improvement, the sessions are spaced out.

Every therapist is unique and different too. Personally, I never impose a rhythm on my patients. At the end of every session, I will ask them if and when they next want to come back. Some people book the next appointment there and then; others wait until they can figure out their agenda for the next couple of days or weeks and let me know by text later on. My personal philosophy is that each patient should feel two things: free and secure, both at the same time. To feel free means to not feel constrained or smothered as they may be feeling in other relationships in their life. As long as each session is paid for, patients may come and go as they please. To feel secure means that the patient must feel the therapist is stable and dependable and that they are always there should they be needed, sometimes even at an extremely short notice. These two things contribute to cementing a solid therapeutic alliance, the key ingredient for sessions to be optimally successful.