How Often Should You See A Mental Health Professional?
(The content of this post is for informational or educational purposes only and does not substitute professional medical advice or consultations with healthcare professionals)
Keeping in mind this will be different based on the individual needs, research suggests that weekly sessions are more effective than every other week or once a month sessions specially at the beginning of treatment. Weekly sessions allow for room to build the client-therapist relationship and also actively work on presenting issues. In my experience, meeting less frequently feels like we are always catching up on what happened over the previous weeks instead of actually making progress towards goals. Throughout the treatment process client and therapist would discuss client progress and compliance with implementation of coping skills to help determine when decreasing treatment frequency would be appropriate. At this point, treatment can decrease to every other week or once a month sessions for continued follow up and support until client feels fully ready to terminate treatment. Of course there may be barriers that could get in the way of doing weekly sessions like availability or finances, but I would suggest trying to meet at frequent as possible specially in the first two to three months of treatment.
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