Asking Your Therapist The Right Questions…
by Jonathon Nixon, LMFT
Therapy can sometimes be an intimidating and/or a hypnotic experience – especially if you found a counselor that you really connect with. It is a place where you really place your trust into someone is going to help you make sense of it all and how it might connect to your motivations in the moment.
It is not uncommon that when going to therapy that the topic of progress can be over looked or even sometimes ignored because of the bias of change a client might have for themselves that can sometimes create an unconscious fear about physically addressing the issue in the back of your mind.
As part of an upcoming book that I am currently writing called, “The Therapy Survival Guide,” I wanted to share with you a few of the questions that I have included in the book so you’re able to elicit the right feedback from your therapist that can help you gain a better understanding of the progress you might be making within your sessions.
These 10 questions can be used to ask your therapist and create a dialogue about your growth and help get a better understanding of the progress you’re making within the eyes of the professional sitting across from you:
How do you assess my progress since we started therapy?
Are there any areas where you've observed significant improvement?
What aspects of my mental health still need work and attention?
How can I better incorporate the skills I've learned in therapy into my daily life?
Do you think my goals have been realistic, and how close am I to achieving them?
Have you noticed any patterns or themes in our sessions that might be important to address?
Are there any additional techniques or approaches we could try to enhance my progress?
How can I better measure my progress between sessions?
What should I do if I feel like I'm not making enough progress in therapy?
How might we adjust our approach as my needs or goals change over time?
Utilize these questions as a means to create a running dialogue of progress and to put your therapist on the spot (we all like a good challenge and the opportunity to openly analyze ourselves and clients!). These kinds of questions can be a valuable resource when it comes to pivoting treatment (if needed) back into a more productive and beneficial means, while at the same time protect you from the psychological prostitution of coming in having just a friendly chat with your therapist “friend” and going back out only to confront the same cycles and problematic patterns.