Therapists answer…
What is therapy like? What does a typical session with you look like?
DDavid Shapiro
Psychologist
What does a typical session with you tend to look like?
So what does a typical session with me look like. First of all, I would tell you that there is no cookie cutter, and I really mean to adjust what I'm doing with each person is based upon their unique needs, preferences and requirements for their situation.
And so, you know that having been said, I will tell you that in a general sense what I like to do is I like to start off by just checking in with a person, and I find out how things are going. Oftentimes they'll share with me a follow up from the past session, things that they've thought about, or maybe they had had some sort of follow up that they were going to do either someone in their life or some, some change that we're going to try to apply or some skill that they're going to be working on and they'll share with me how that went.
And then usually together we'll kind of figure out what it is that they're needing in whatever phase they're in, and then we'll set about trying to do something which will move them forward for that area. Sometimes that may involve teaching them a skill, sometimes that may involve more deeply processing the reactions to some event or some things that they're struggling with on the inside. Sometimes they may even, it may even involve leading them through some kind of an internal process. And so, those kinds of internal processes could be considered like a guided meditation or a clinical hypnosis session. Trauma reprocessing if you really begin can vary greatly, based upon the needs of each person and where they are and so forth. Depending upon also who I'm working with. This could also vary because if I'm working with a couple or with a parent and a teenager. Some of that can involve supporting them and communicating with each other. And then after that, kind of, whatever that corrective intervention, I guess we would say it is. Then there's the thinking about what the next step in the person's development is, and what would help them in that process.
And so this is where we start now thinking about what sorts of follow up the person might do between our next session, sometimes this involves making recommendations to them about skills that they could practice or books they might find helpful even, you know recordings or other resources that they might access to support whatever the growth is that they're needing or wanting and and then usually that kind of involves some kind of a kind of a follow up plan. You know, some people call that homework. I don't really think about it that way because it's really, you know, just kind of helping them identify something that they could do, of course, if they didn't, then we could easily follow up on that next session. It isn't school where we're where, you know, there is the authority who's going to be critical if they don't do something, it's really for them to decide whether they would find that helpful, but generally that's the structure so there's, there's kind of a checking in figuring out where a person's at, Then there's doing something that's going to move them forward in some way. And then there's figuring out how that can be supported and followed up on before our next session.
And that's kind of, you know, very, very broad strokes, you know, probably typical structure of most therapies, but the details can vary greatly, and the good thing is is that, you know, because of my years of experience and the various development opportunities that I've had. I'm able to really offer a whole host of different types of approaches and strategies, and be able to morph those you know to each individual in a very unique way. And that's just something that comes with experience, expertise, so I would really value the chance to talk to you about what it is that you're particularly looking for and then maybe together we can talk about what sorts of sessions would be of value to you, and, and one way that we could do that is through a free online consultation which I offer and it would be it would be great if we could just take a few moments and think through those things to see if I might be the one to be of assistance to you so I hope that gives you a little bit of a kind of general idea about what I do within therapy, and hopefully we could think about the particulars about how that could apply to you. I hope to talk to you soon. Take care.








