How Often Should You Go To The Psychologist During Therapy?
You probably already knew it, but going to psychotherapy is not like going to the doctor to get a prescription for a pill; The effect of psychological intervention is noticeable after several sessions, not just one.
At the end of the day, going to psychological therapy is like a training process, in which the real benefits of spending a few hours with the trainer accumulate until they become evident in a few weeks. However… How often should we go to the psychologist to overcome the problem that has led us to ask for professional support? And… what happens if these sessions are interrupted for a while? Here we will answer these questions.
If you have doubts about how often you should go to psychotherapy, it is normal, it is a common doubt among those who have not been to the psychologist much.
The first thing you should know is that you should not worry, because in all cases the psychological intervention professionals They will tell you when and how you should be going through these sessions, it’s not something you just have to choose. But if you are curious and want to know the criteria that are followed to determine the frequency of therapy sessions, here you will find a summary of it.
The “default” option, the one that occurs in most cases of people who go to a psychologist, is the plan for one therapy session a week, always on the same day.
Why is it necessary to maintain this record? A short way of saying it is that The patient needs constant support to make changes in his or her life Ultimately, psychotherapy is about embracing new habits when it comes to behaving, feeling and thinking, and this is not something that is achieved simply by sitting down to talk to the therapist: between sessions there is work to do, that Yes, following the professional’s instructions.
In this way, in the weekly sessions the progress that the patient has made is monitored, their doubts are resolved so that they can continue improving, they are taught new methods and techniques to gradually overcome their problem, and They propose new challenges that are a little more complex than those of the previous sessions. This work logic requires perseverance, and for this it is essential to have sessions with the psychologist periodically without letting too much time pass between one consultation and the next.
What happens if weeks go by without going to therapy, despite the psychologist’s recommendations? In these cases, normally, a good part of the progress will be lost, and it will be necessary to start over from a stage that had already been overcome. And that is if you return to therapy, because many times the fact of stopping going to therapy for too long makes the patient throw in the towel, and no longer continue treating themselves.
In some cases, the symptoms expressed by the person are so severe, and their discomfort so intense, that it is necessary to undergo psychotherapy sessions more than once a week.
For example, it is not unusual for this to occur in hospital admissions or in other health centers where patients remain admitted**, such as detoxification centers. In this way, extra support is provided to people who are in a particularly vulnerable situation.
Once every two, three or four weeks
There are also cases in which the patient goes to the psychologist less than once a week. They are not as frequent as the occasions in which a weekly session is held, but they are not rare either; They usually take place when treatment is coming to an end, and in the follow-up phase.
In this stage, The psychologist monitors the changes that have occurred in the patient’s life, to detect signs that your problem may be relapsing and react in time. In addition, it resolves doubts, something very common in this phase, because as time passes, situations arise that had not been discussed in the therapy sessions, and in cases like this the patient may feel confused, not knowing what to do.
If you can’t get to the psychology center… online therapy
Some time ago it was a problem not being able to see the psychologist during some of the scheduled sessions; As we have seen, if we want to overcome a psychological disorder or solve some other emotional or behavioral problem, it is important to commit to the therapeutic process and commit to perseverance.
Luckily, nowadays It is not necessary to go to the psychologist’s office to benefit from his support Online therapy, based on video calls, is as effective as that which takes place face to face, and even has some advantages that the “traditional format” does not have.
For example, It allows us to save travel time, and makes it possible to have professional help even in situations in which we cannot move from our home, either due to an injury or in a quarantine context due to a pandemic such as the coronavirus. And, of course, it helps not to interrupt therapy sessions.
This is why many psychology centers dedicate a good part of our work to conducting online therapy, in addition to in-person therapy. If you are interested in this modality, We encourage you to contact our Avance Psychologists team, an entity with several decades of experience caring for patients and that has been offering online services for years. To view our contact information and read more about us, click here.
