Psychotherapy
Early on in the treatment, the psychologist will help you make goals to work towards and identify the ways therapy will help you achieve them. Goals can include feeling less depressed, feeling more comfortable in social situations, improving pain management, changing your behaviour, increasing self-esteem, etc. In addition, the psychologist will review your progress in meeting these goals at certain intervals.
Important things to remember about psychological treatments are that it can be hard work to change feelings, thoughts and behaviour – you have to be ready to commit yourself to attend sessions regularly and follow through on recommendations. One thing that can not be changed is the past, but you can change how it affects you. It is also difficult to change the behaviour of other people. Psychological treatment is primarily focused on helping you make personal changes to improve your life.
There is often more than one way to solve or manage a psychological problem – which one to choose can depend on the training of the practitioner and the characteristics of the client. Finally, if you have questions or concerns, let the psychologist know!
- Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)