So You Want to Be an Art Therapist Part Two
Making Therapy Successful: Setting Goals for Therapy
Good therapy can seem similar magic. Y'all sit in your therapist's office and talk and things in your life start to get improve. You don't become every bit upset during conversations with your partner and don't get every bit stressed out at work. Y'all finally start dealing with that bad habit that's been belongings you back and are feeling creative over again.
While at that place'due south an art to therapy, there's a science to it, too, and specific things you can practise to increase your chances of success. In this kickoff article in the "Making Therapy Successful" series, we'll explore an often-overlooked chemical element of therapy: setting tangible and measurable goals.
It'southward possible to take even the vaguest or nigh poetic motivations for therapy and set goals based on them that yous can use to rail your progress. By following these steps, you tin can come up with a listing of personally meaningful goals that can continue your work in therapy focused and productive.
1. Beginning by identifying broad motives, hopes, and dreams.
At your starting time therapy session, when your therapist asks, "What brings you to therapy?" the commencement matter that comes to heed might be a elementary, heartfelt statement like, "I just desire to exist happy," or "I experience stuck," or "I'm tired of just going through the motions." These statements are too vague to brand effective therapeutic goals, but they're a good showtime.
What does existence happy look like for you? What specific struggles brand you feel stuck? Answering these questions can guide you lot toward more specific goals.
One manner to develop goals is to brainstorm and write down as many reasons for coming to therapy as you can. Whether you're writing in paragraphs or making a heed map, the elementary process of getting your ideas down on paper (or on a screen) tin help you clarify them. It tin can assist to commencement with a prompt:
- What are some things in your life that you're tired of?
- What are some things in your life that yous love and desire more of?
- What are some things you haven't done even so that y'all still want to practice?
- Was there a specific problem that brought you to therapy? How and when did it starting time?
As you build lists and examine your responses to these or other prompts, you lot may discover that sure motives, hopes, or struggles stand up out more than others. Explore these more than deeply. What you thought your reason was for coming to therapy might non be the most important change y'all want to make in your life.
2. Choose a theme to focus on.
You might come up to therapy feeling similar your life is a total disaster. Where practise y'all even brainstorm? You're having serious problems at work and at home. Your bad habits are affecting your health, your finances, and your relationships. You're having trouble getting on runway with anything.
It'southward okay to walk into your therapist's office and say, "I'm a total wreck. Tin nosotros set everything?" Your therapist will exist sympathetic, want to help, and set to listen to you lot describe the issues you're having. Simply you'll be more successful if y'all work with your therapist to notice specific issues to focus on.
If you lot're falling behind at piece of work and snapping at your partner or children, it might be related to a specific cause that you lot can address in therapy, such as stress or guilt. Your therapist is trained to identify root problems and tin help you lot if you're overwhelmed or uncertain how to keep.
3. Narrow your theme into one or more than specific goals.
Sometimes, it's piece of cake to identify specific goals for therapy. Sometimes it takes a little more piece of work. Often, information technology'south a matter of finding the right term. "I want to figure out if I'1000 depressed" is easier to plough into an effective goal than "Something but seems to be wrong." Either one is a fine place to start, but it'due south easier to place symptoms of depression than to identify a needle in the emotional haystack of "Something is wrong." These case goals may give you lot some ideas:
- "I want to heal from depression and get my hope and energy back."
- "I desire to terminate having the same fight with my partner over and over again."
- "I want to terminate overeating when I'one thousand stressed out and notice healthier ways to cope."
- "I desire to be creative like I used to exist when I was younger. I want to paint, sing, or write again."
Go on in listen that these are just examples and that the range of valid therapeutic goals is wide and varied.
One of the most common reasons people seek therapy is that they desire to be happy simply aren't. Of class, it's non your job to effigy out exactly why you're unhappy—therapists wouldn't have much work to do if anybody could figure that out so hands for themselves. But you tin can outset the procedure by trusting your instincts and proverb what you remember the problem might be.
You can share suspicions with your therapist that you've been agape to share with anyone else. When y'all confess fears similar "I remember I might be unhappy because I'thou in the wrong line of piece of work," or "I'm not sure I desire to be with my partner," your relationship with your therapist and your work with each other will deepen. Fifty-fifty being able to say, "I don't know what I desire" tin help.
4. Make your goals concrete, measurable, and SMART.
The idea of SMART goals comes from corporate management only is a good frame of reference for any procedure of goal formation. SMART goals are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Fourth dimension-bound
For a goal to be measurable, it has to be specific. Goals that are both measurable and specific are concrete. You lot can visualize concrete goals and marker exactly when you've met them. For case, "I want to go up every morning by 7:00 AM" is much more than concrete than "I desire to stop sleeping late." Saying, "I want to stop binging on Trivial Debbie and start going to the gym at least twice a week" is more concrete than "I desire to be healthier."
Time is an important cistron in any goal-setting process. If you're not sure how long it should take to achieve a major therapeutic goal, break it up into smaller goals. For example, instead of saying, "I want to cure my social anxiety completely in one year," yous tin say, "I desire to become to at least two social events in the next calendar month" or "I want to get out of the house at least once a solar day for the next week." It's okay if y'all don't achieve your goals right away; office of the process of growth is learning what didn't piece of work and trying once more when you don't succeed.
v. Create an action plan to rails and achieve your goals.
Once y'all've identified one or more important goals you want to achieve in therapy, you can piece of work together with your therapist to come up up with an action program. Many therapists are required to do this as function of the treatment planning procedure for their agencies. In general, a handling plan includes major goals, smaller objectives you lot can utilize to track your progress toward these goals, and the methods you'll employ to facilitate change.
Next calendar week's installment of "Making Therapy Successful" will provide detailed steps for creating an activity plan and measuring your progress in therapy. You can set past taking time this week to brainstorm and identify your therapeutic goals. If you haven't found a therapist yet, y'all tin can use the search feature on OpenCounseling to find affordable counseling in your surface area or sign upwardly for affordable online therapy at BetterHelp (a sponsor). If you tin can figure out your goals before you fifty-fifty start therapy, yous're sure to hit the basis running!
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Posted on 06/23/2019 by Stephanie Hairston, MSW
Stephanie Hairston is a freelance mental health writer who spent several years in the field of adult mental health before transitioning to professional person writing and editing. As a masters-level clinical social worker, she provided group and individual therapy, crunch intervention services, and psychological assessments. She has as well worked as a technical writer for a medical software company and equally an editor for a company that appeals denials of insurance coverage for behavioral health treatment. As a author, she is motivated by the same desire to help others that brought her into the field of social piece of work and believes that noesis is 1 of the most essential recovery tools. She strongly believes in the mission of OpenCounseling and in making therapy attainable for everyone.
Source: https://www.opencounseling.com/blog/making-therapy-successful-setting-goals-for-therapy
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