How Long Does Therapy Last?

How long does therapy last? I’m going to start by saying don’t get caught up in the logistics, if you need therapy, you need therapy, and you’ll need as many sessions as you’ll need. Everyone is different, everyone’s needs are specific to them, and there are a whole range of variables involved in trying to establish how long therapy might last.

However, if you need a little more than that, let me try to explain why there is no short answer to the question of how long therapy might last in nice bite-sized chunks:

Is my therapy time-limited or open-ended?

Before we talk about your needs, we need to consider the therapy setting as the length of your therapy isn’t always your choice.

If you seek support via your GP, an Employee Assistance Programme, a legal team, or a local charity offering free or low-cost therapy, you are likely to find that you are offered time-limited therapy of anywhere around between 3 and 20 sessions (this isn’t always the case so it’s worth checking if you do feel you need longer-term therapy). Quite often (but not always), people don’t find that they are able to finish their therapy in these settings and seek private therapy to explore the issues that arose in their short-term therapy setting. This can feel like starting over so it’s worth bearing in mind whether or not you feel your challenges are more deeper rooted and therefore may need longer to explore. You may want to seek out long-term therapy from the start.

What are my needs?

Are you looking for therapy for a specific problem? Again, your specific problem may have generated from something far more deep rooted and you might not uncover this until you’re part-way into your therapy and realise there’s much more to explore! If you aren’t looking to explore where your problem has arisen from but want to overcome the problem, then you may only need a few sessions, 6 is usual for short-term outcomes. That isn’t to say that you won’t need to keep practising what you’ve learned after your therapy ends, it is common for people to go back into therapy further down the line when they haven’t been able to apply the strategies they’ve learned to new situations that have arisen.

What type of therapy am I accessing?

There are a whole host of therapies available to you if you choose to access these privately. There doesn’t tend to be a lot of option when accessing free, or low cost, support. There is a heavy reliance on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in these settings as this tends to be short-term so more people can be seen and supported in a more efficient and timely way. CBT can be great for issues such as anxiety and depression and focuses on the current issue at hand.

Person-centred therapy tends to be the basis of most therapists’ training and, whilst a lot of therapists undertake further training in order to integrate techniques into your therapy, some will prefer to work solely to a person-centred approach. This approach is of great value to those seeking to understand themselves to a deeper level and whom are looking for someone to talk to, to hear their story, to explore their emotions and to develop themselves and find a greater sense of peace within themselves. It won’t be a surprise that this is long-term work that can occasionally last for a number of years, dependent on the experiences of the client.

It is worth researching the different types of therapy available to you if you are seeking private counselling, one might stand out more than the others for you. More structured therapies are usually shorter-term, in fact there is training available to therapists around ‘single session therapy’ if you really haven’t got the time to commit to counselling!

How much effort will I be making?

Yes, you will need to do some work if you are to move through the process of therapy. Your therapy will keep moving forward as long as you put in the time and effort in between sessions. If you aren’t doing the work, considering the issues arising, thinking about your counselling in between sessions, it will take longer. Shorter-term therapies such as CBT rely on you doing homework in between sessions in order to allow focus in the sessions and keep things moving along smoothly. Ideally you need to have an idea of what you are wanting to explore in your sessions in order to get the most out of them and benefit from them more swiftly. It can be difficult at times to know where the focus needs to be so it may take a little longer for some.

How much ‘stuff’ do I need to get through?

Do you have a lot of ‘stuff’ to bring? And of course, what if other ‘stuff’ comes up mid-way through?! Once you’ve established a good relationship with your therapist, it’s tempting to explore a bit of everything and talk about issues occurring as well as past issues because, well, why wouldn’t you? It’s eye opening and valuable. We’re heard and we’re understood. We’re challenged and supported, encouraged and connected and, believe it or not, it can be difficult to let this go when we find we’re doing well. You may want to carry on a little longer than is actually necessary.

So, in short, how long your therapy lasts will be dictated by the setting you access therapy in, the type of therapy the counsellor uses, the amount of time and effort you can put into the work between sessions, how much ‘stuff’ you want to get through, and how deeply you want to explore it.

If it helps, I always enter a client’s therapy assuming it will be long-term but being prepared for anything. Every client is unique, and I work differently depending on their preferences and needs. I do what I feel is right for each individual client and if some take a bit longer than others, well, I’m ready to invest the time. Are you?

You can make contact with one of our therapists today via our contact page if, of course, you feel we can offer you what you need. We look forward to hearing from you.