How Often Should I Attend Therapy?

                                                                                                   Photo by Renáta-Adrienn

A question I am repeatedly asked- "How often should I come to therapy?" This blog post can help clients make informed decisions about their own therapy treatment.

Session attendance is greatly impacted by external factors such as insurance coverage, finances, childcare, work schedules, and stability of environment, which must be considered. As such, I always advise clients that they should decide what works best for them-weekly, monthly, or otherwise.

If you are wondering what the research says- higher session frequency results in quicker recovery (Ereksen et al., 2015). It has also been found that the time between sessions impact treatment outcome MORE than consistency of sessions (Gutner et al., 2016). Overall, faster improvement and recovery is associated with higher session frequency, particularly in the first 3 months of treatment (Schleider et al., 2021).

In closing, rest assured that while attending sessions more frequently has shown higher efficiency, your finances, scheduling, work/home stability, etc... do need to be considered. Life happens, and could impact your initial plans for therapy. Stay in communication with your counsellor and let them know how they can best support you.

If you found this topic interesting, stay tuned as we will be exploring it further in the upcoming weeks. Take great care of yourself. You deserve it.

Yours always in authenticity,

Jody

References

Erekson, D. M., Lambert, M. J., & Eggett, D. L. (2015). The relationship between session frequency and psychotherapy outcome in a naturalistic setting. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83(6), 1097–1107. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039774

Gutner, C. A., Suvak, M. K., Sloan, D. M., & Resick, P. A. (2016). Does timing matter? Examining the impact of session timing on outcome. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 84(12), 1108–1115. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000120

Schleider, J. L., Dobias, M. L., Mullarkey, M. C., & Ollendick, T. (2021). Retiring, Rethinking, and Reconstructing the Norm of Once-Weekly Psychotherapy. Administration and policy in mental health, 48(1), 4–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-020-01090-7