We get asked this question a lot at Unyielding Health & Wellness, so much so that we decided it would be a good idea to write a blog post about the answer. Keep reading below to see our thoughts on this frequently asked question.
Looking for specific strategies and tips in this blog post? Refer to our table of contents below for easy reading:
Table of Contents
- How Many Counselling Sessions Will I Need When Seeing A Kelowna Therapist?
- Client Motivation for Change
- Perceived Severity of Concern Before and After Counselling
- Problem Resolution
- Conclusion
- References
- More Posts
- Book Appointment Today
How many sessions, you ask?
Simple! It’s the number that you end up coming for, so come on in!
Like many things, the question “How many counselling sessions do I need?” is quite nuanced. And the only answer we can provide is: “It depends.”
If it gives you some comfort to know though, the most common number of counselling sessions a person will attend is actually one, according to Simon, Imel, Ludman & Steinfeld (2012). That isn’t to say that those individuals are either “cured” often after one session, or that the counselling was useless, leaving them figuring it’s not worth their time. While both of those situations can and do happen, the breakdown of how many sessions the average person participates in depends on a slew of factors.
Let’s get into a couple of the major factors that might influence your length of therapy and pace of progress.
Client Motivation for Change
How pissed off are you that ‘it’ has happened again? Disappointed, nervous, you name it. Maybe you think you care, but when thought comes to action, you don’t care all that much, or don’t know where to start.
Your feelings and beliefs about your situation strongly determine your motivation to do something about your situation. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” is an idiom that’s stood the test of time for a reason. Motivation to obtain the motivation to change can also be a confounding challenge in and of itself at this initial point in one’s health journey. There are countless calculations to consider, especially if the situation isn’t clearly poor enough to justify the challenges and work that come with positive change.
It’s totally normal to get bogged down in this first of several steps. People considering initiating health change behaviours like to see that the pros outweigh the cons in a 1.5-3:1 ratio (Seligman,1995; Sheeran, Harris & Epton, 2014; Ferrer & Klein, 2015). So there often needs to be a significant perceived benefit to the individual to initiate that change.
So, how does motivation fall into the number of sessions you may need? Well, you need to get in the door, that’s primary. The close second is the ability to commit to the ideal life you’re striving toward, which will require a lot of work on your part.
This is where fostering the motivation to do what is in your power and responsibility to control and influence improvement of your situation is crucial. And if you don’t know what’s your responsibility to change to improve your situation, then the motivation to figure that out first. Our Okanagan therapists help you understand yourself and your situation, and obtain motivation to make healthy changes.
Perceived Severity of Concern Before and After Counselling
Some people come in to their counselling sessions with seemingly small issues, thinking they’ll be solved in a session or two, only to find themselves still coming to sessions now and then decades later. Others come in with a seemingly huge problem thinking it will take years, only to find that it’s satisfactorily solved in no time at all. Some people may think that their small issue isn’t worth their time, effort, and/or money to come to counselling; in vis versa, a problem too big to even know where to start unraveling it, lest it all come apart at once.
Here’s a question for you: “How would you rank your current problems/concerns, subjectively?” According to Seligman (1995) in a study of over 4000 people, 87% of clients who felt “very poor” or “fairly poor” prior to therapy said they felt better afterward. Seligman also found that clients who reported that their problems were milder to start still achieved significant improvements. Lastly, Seligman observed that clients in therapy for over six months reported greater improvement (92% felt better) compared to those with shorter durations (74% for 1-3 sessions). While these results differ slightly from the Lambert study mentioned below, one can begin to make a more accurate initial guess on how many counselling sessions they may need.
Problem Resolution
Seemingly obviously, the problem not being a problem anymore is a great reason to stop or significantly reduce your number of counselling sessions. According to Lambert (2013), about 30% of clients achieve benefit after three sessions, where that number more reliably increases to 50% odds of satisfaction after 8 sessions, followed by 75% of persons satisfied after 14 sessions.
What is considered a benefit or satisfaction? That’s where a fair bit (i.e., a whole lot) of subjectivity on your part as the client comes into play. You get to decide what is satisfactory, beneficial, or acceptable in your life, and determine your own end date to therapy.
Some people never really “end” their sessions; sessions just become farther apart. Coming in for a “correction” (as those familiar with chiropractors may recognize) every few months, years, and/or around certain times of year. Often, sessions will begin at a higher frequency, one a week or bi-weekly, and taper closer to once per month as therapy progresses and you approach or achieve resolutions to your concerns.
Conclusion
With what’s been said so far, the number of counselling sessions you need to perform is determined by you, so how could we have answered that anyway? One is well off to accept that when determining the number of counselling sessions they may need, that the intensity of the problem at hand, the motivation to change what’s in your control, and the problem being (satisfactorily) dealt with are all significant factors which interact dynamically with one another (not to mention many of the other factors, which we will likely get to in future blog posts) to ensure that the number of sessions required is a unique number to the individual.
That being said, lots of people have had great results from 1-3 sessions, and the results only get better from that point. “There is always a first for everything” is another popular idiom that comes to mind, and if you’ve never done counselling before, you have no personal experience to go off to help inform you.
In closing, try to think of a positive health expense or experience you’ve had where at the time you were skeptical about the end result, and ask yourself: “Was it was worth it?”
References
Ferrer, R. A., & Klein, W. M. P. (2015). Risk perceptions and health behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(5), 85–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.03.012
Lambert, M. J. (2013). The efficacy and effectiveness of psychotherapy. In M. J. Lambert (Ed.), Bergin and Garfield’s handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (6th ed., pp. 169–218). Wiley.
Seligman, M. E. P. (1995). The effectiveness of psychotherapy: The Consumer Reports study. American Psychologist, 50(12), 965–974. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003- 066X.50.12.965
Sheeran, P., Harris, P. R., & Epton, T. (2014). Does heightening risk appraisals change people’s intentions and behavior? A meta-analysis of experimental studies. Psychological Bulletin, 140(2), 511–543. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033065
Simon, G. E., Imel, Z. E., Ludman, E. J., & Steinfeld, B. J. (2012). Is dropout after a first psychotherapy visit always a bad outcome? Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.), 63(7), 705-707. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201100309
Written by Timothy Lamont C.C.C.
All of this is easier read than done. If you or someone you love would like to talk to one of our professional Kelowna counsellors, online or in person, contact us today!
