I’ve never talked to anyone. I’m used to handling things on my own. Aren’t people who go to therapy weak?
Not at all. People who ask for help know when they need it and have the courage to reach out. Everyone needs help now and then. In our work together, I’ll help you explore and identify your strengths and how to implement them to reduce the influence of the problems you are facing.
How can Therapy Help me?
The mix of a good therapeutic fit, your own time and energy, and everyone’s willingness to engage in the process can create powerful results. Therapy can provide a framework for improved communication, coping skills and skill management, providing a sounding board with a nonjudgmental third party, support to process emotions and thoughts, and even a place to air grievances and learn how to heal from past wounds.
- Attaining a better understanding of yourself, your goals and values
- Developing skills for improving your relationships
- Finding resolution to the issues or concerns that led you to seek therapy
- Learning new ways to cope with stress and anxiety
- Managing anger, grief, depression, and other emotional pressures
- Improving communications and listening skills
- Changing old behavior patterns and developing new ones
- Discovering new ways to solve problems in your family or marriage
- Improving your self-esteem and boosting self-confidence
Do I really need therapy? I can usually handle my problems
Those of us at Serenity Therapeutic Services view therapy like any other tool in life — if it helps, if it creates less stress for you, or if it helps you improve on what you’re already doing, why wouldn’t you want to use it? Therapy doesn’t just come down to do you need it – it can be a great resource for proactively tackling life situations or decisions, or even just helpful in maintaining healthy changes you’ve already started yourself but want a little accountability for.
What is Therapy like?
Because each person has different issues and goals for therapy, therapy will be different depending on the individual. In general, you can expect to discuss the current events happening in your life, your personal history relevant to your issue, and report progress (or any new insights gained) from the previous therapy session. Depending on your specific needs, therapy can be short-term, for a specific issue, or longer-term, to deal with more difficult patterns or your desire for more personal development. In more concrete terms, the therapeutic session can be formatted in some ways to fit individual needs. Maybe that means you can only meet every other week for personal or financial reasons. Maybe the work you are doing is very intense and you need extended sessions so that you can have a ten minute break in the middle. Options such as these can be discussed with your individual therapist to figure out what is going to work best to make sure therapy is a contribution to your life – not a hindrance.
It is important to understand that you will get more results from therapy if you actively participate in the process. The ultimate purpose of therapy is to help you bring what you learn in session back into your life. Therefore, beyond the work you do in therapy sessions, your therapist may suggest some things you can do outside of therapy to support your process – such as reading a pertinent book, journaling on specific topics, noting particular behaviors or taking action on your goals.
What about medication vs. psychotherapy?
Serenity Therapeutic Services believes in a holistic approach to healing. Therapy doesn’t necessarily preclude medication, and vice-versa. In order to make sure that everyone on your treatment team is working in tandem, we have our clients sign disclosure consent forms so that you are not given conflicting information or ideas, and so that we can work with any prescribers to make sure medication side-effects are not hindering your therapeutic work.
Do you take insurance, and how does that work?
Serenity Therapeutic Services does not currently accept insurance, though we are able to provide you with the necessary documentation to attempt to file for OON reimbursement.