Some surprises are fun, and some really aren’t. Surprises like an unexpected snack from the gas station or free tickets to the Jonas Brothers concert. When it comes to your mental health and vulnerability, that’s gonna be a hard pass for surprises. Some of those we can work to manage and some of those neither you nor I can see coming in the midst of therapy.
In order to avoid any unexpected surprises, I want to give you as much information about me and what therapy is like with me before you jump in. Although I think we can safely assume, there is no way of fully knowing until you do the thing. Either way, I want to give you a good idea of what to expect from me as a therapist and the type of work we would do together. There are things I am really good at and some things that I’m not. I’m committed to you having the best experience possible in therapy. So in no particular order, let’s go.
I will not be telling you what to do.
If you’re coming to therapy, I would bet you’ve tried to figure it out on your own. That is probably what you’ve tried time and time again. I can understand if you’re at the point where you would just want me to tell you what to do and are dying to let someone else take the wheel of your life. I understand this so much. I sometimes wish someone else could tell me what to do and make decisions for me as well. I can’t tell you what to do with your life and decisions though. I would have to be spending a lot of time with you, be in your brain, and know your relationships to the depth that you do but none of those are possible. You are the expert on yourself and your life, and I believe you in wholeheartedly. What I will do, is work really hard for you. I am committed and determined to get you feeling better. I assure you I will care about you and your life. My role is to make recommendations from a professional standpoint and share observations from an outside perspective. We are in this together, and I pinky promise to share things with you from what I am seeing and to give you options to experiment with.
I will work hard to make you comfortable.
You coming into my office and sharing personal things about your life and asking for help is an incredible feat and takes an amazing amount of courage. My clients are the people I admire the very most in this world. I want nothing more than for you to be comfortable while doing the uncomfortable. I want you to be comfortable with me because that makes all of the difference. We are going to go at your pace and work on the things you want to work on. I will not be pushing you too far or too hard past what you feel like you can manage. I will certainly challenge you in ways and invite you to go deeper but if you don’t want to go there, we definitely aren’t going there. I am here for you in whatever way you want and want you to feel comfortable with the approach and process.
We will be exploring earlier experiences and maybe (definitely) childhood things.
I really told myself I wouldn’t be this type of therapist, and I learned it’s because I hate when people have to relive that different brand of sadness that comes from going back to painful experiences. I have developed some distress tolerance skills because I have learned it’s absolutely essential for healing to go back to those experiences and memories and to reprocess them. I come from a psychodynamic perspective, which means I believe past experiences impact us more than we realize. Past experiences impact what triggers you and your present functioning. We often think those past experiences have nothing to do with our raging anxiety or people-pleasing but sometimes they do. The good news is the intention in talking about it is to decrease your pain and suffering around those experiences and to improve the symptoms you are struggling with not just for fun :)
I am committed to learning and improving as a therapist
I would say every year I spent a substantial amount of time and honestly a lot of cash money focused on continually learning how to better serve you. As a graduate student, I was saving my pennies to pay for training so I could learn more about how to help the clients I was working with at my unpaid internship. The field of therapy and psychology is continually evolving and gaining knowledge, and I want to make sure to learn all I can to give you the best chance of healing that I can. My education taught me how to keep learning and growing because it all comes down to you getting good care.
I will encourage a lot of self-care and self-compassion
What you are going through is hard. It’s not for the faint of heart to go to therapy and to look their pain straight in the eye. Self-compassion is going to be essential to your healing. You learning to be kind and gentle with yourself won’t be easy but we are going to work on getting you to the point of it being more natural. Self-care is going to be encouraged all the time but especially when you have a tough session. When you leave feeling a little raw or when you come into therapy feeling a little raw, your mind, body, and soul need some extra care.
I do recommend books, podcasts, and other resources.
Many of my clients have done all they can on their own before coming to therapy. They’ve read self-help books, and it still wasn’t enough. They need something extra, which is why they are coming to therapy. When I recommend you read or listen to something, it’s not a replacement for therapy but is something that is meant to help you in addition to therapy. It can also be helpful for you to reach your goals by talking about some of the things you’ve learned or read in therapy. If you want to know some of the 10 Books I Recommend in Therapy you can click this link.
The type of therapy I use is based on research.
If you’re my family, you think what I do is listen to people all day and hand out advice ;). What a lot of us don’t know is that therapists use researched ways of helping people in a session that you may not even notice. It’s important to me that you know that I am using things to help you that have been studied and proven to work time and time again by many trained professionals. It matters to me that you are getting the help that is going to work and help you feel better.
I am going to work really hard to help you get better
I believe in you and your ability to have the type of life you want. I believe in you, and your ability to heal and overcome really hard things. I believe all my clients can really feel so much better. I didn’t invest years of education and money to do something I didn’t believe in. I work with clients I know I can help. I wouldn’t be working with you if I didn’t believe in you. I want you to know that I am willing to work hard and fight to help you get better. The clients I work with have hustle and heart and are at the point they will do anything to feel better. I want you to know I am in it with you and promise to do whatever I can for you to get out of the heaviness and hopelessness you might be in.
If you’ve read this post and think I’m the type of therapist you need right now, I would be honored to help. I know it’s hard to find someone you feel comfortable opening up with about some of the hardest things in your life. I am aware this may be vulnerable, and I will be delicate.
Looking for an eating disorder therapist in Utah?
You don’t have to keep struggling with your eating disorder. I know it feels like the cycle will never end when it comes to eating and food, but this Utah Counseling Practice has an eating disorder therapist specializing in eating disorder therapy who can help you make peace with food. To begin therapy, follow the steps below:
Meet with an eating disorder therapist in Utah
Begin eating disorder recovery
Online Eating Disorder Therapy in Utah
When you are struggling with an eating disorder, I know how important it is to have the reassurance that you are receiving treatment from someone that knows how to help you recover. Unfortunately, many parts of Utah don’t have an eating disorder therapist access. This is why I provide online therapy in Utah. It’s safe, convenient, and allows you to connect with an online eating disorder therapist without traveling.
I provide eating disorder therapy to women located in Logan, Heber, Cedar City, St. George, Salt Lake City, and more.
Other mental health services provided in Utah
Eating disorder therapy isn’t the only counseling service provided at this Northern Utah Counseling Clinic. Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy include binge eating disorder treatment, anxiety therapy, EMDR therapy, birth trauma therapy, and body image therapy in Utah.