Therapy is a wonderful way to explore your inner world, process your feelings, and inspire transformation. But what clients can sometimes find is that a day or so after their session, they begin to feel a little lost, stressed or get back into old patterns and habits.
It’s important to support the progress you’ve made with your therapist in between your sessions. Here is what I advise women and men I work with to do in between our therapy sessions:
Record your Insights to Support Your Mental Health Between Therapy Sessions:
Therapy is a space for profound A-ha moments. It’s important to hold onto those in the days after your session. Take some time to reflect more deeply about what was uncovered and see if any other pieces of information come to the surface. Bring a notebook to your session and jot down things that you have been discussing in session. Between sessions use this journal to add observations and reflections on what has been helpful or effective and places you’ve gotten stuck. Bring this with you to your next session so you can share your additional insights with me.
Learn Something New:
If you’re interested, ask me to recommend some helpful books, blogs, podcasts or articles that may offer deeper insights into your issue. While reading about your issue will not resolve it on its own, it’s a great way to supplement your therapy sessions. There are so many resources available in many different formats that can help encourage and inspire you to further your growth.
Podcasts to Support Your Mental Health Between Therapy Sessions:
https://brenebrown.com/podcast-show/unlocking-us/
https://www.balancedworkingmama.com/podcast
Implement What You’ve Learned to Support Your Mental Health Between Therapy Sessions:
While therapy sessions on their own can provide insight and equip you with new skills and strategies, without implementing these things into your life it is very difficult for growth and transformation to take place. As therapists we understand that the change process can be challenging and if you are having struggles to implement what we’ve discussed in session don’t hesitate to let us know. We can explore what the barriers to implementation have been and help find alternate ideas or strategies that you may be more likely to implement.
Journal:
I have been exploring gratitude journaling recently after reading about the impact of it on mental well being. Research has found that expressive journalling (where you write about your feelings) helps reduce stress and gratitude journalling decreases feelings of depression and helps people to feel happier.
If you did just these four things, you would find your time in between sessions would be more fruitful and help to facilitate further positive change.
Therapy is a wonderful way to explore your inner world, process your feelings, and inspire transformation. But what my clients often tell me is that a day or so after our session, they begin to feel a little lost and anxious again.
SOURCES:
https://www.foundationscounselingllc.com/blog/what-to-do-between-therapy-sessions.php
https://themighty.com/topic/mental-health/mental-health-support-tools-to-use-between-therapy-sessions/