How long should I stay in therapy?

People have counselling for various reasons, and to achieve many different aims.

Some use it only for a short period, to help them through a particularly difficult time in their lives like a relocation, divorce, or bereavement.

Short-term work typically lasts between ten and 20 sessions and is faster-paced and specifically solution-focused, as clearly there is not time for a more exploratory, broad-ranging approach.

People who need help to tackle self-destructive behaviours – like heavy drinking, over-eating, or porn, gambling or internet addictions – can benefit from longer-term counselling, lasting a year or more. This is because getting to the root of our distress eases the pressure to distract ourselves in old, unhelpful ways, and helps us develop new, healthier patterns of behaviour.

If you want short or medium-term therapy, DO discuss with your counsellor at the outset how many sessions you would like and which particular problem(s) you want to address. It’s also important to be realistic about how much can be achieved within a limited timescale.

Open-ended counselling can last for a year or longer, and allows time to engage more deeply in the therapeutic process, and bring about more lasting change. 

This is an option for people who take a holistic approach to their health, and appreciate that the mind, body and spirit are interlinked. From this perspective, the support and insight offered by an ongoing therapeutic relationship is as important to our well-being as eating healthily, taking regular exercise and treating our bodies to relaxing spa treatments.

Open-ended therapy enables us to look beyond our immediate problems and explore our inner world at our own pace. We can then use therapy as a safe and secure base from which to engage in a process of fundamental, life-enhancing change.

Note, though, that open-ended need not mean interminable! YOU are in control of how long your therapy lasts, and can work with your therapist towards an ending when you feel ready for it.