What do you discuss with your therapist on regular CBT visits?

[jray23]

I've been seeing a therapist for two years, ever since my HA ballooned to a point where I was seeing a doctor about once a month for different "illnesses" each time, realizing how my life was being adversely affected (and after two docs both recommending it to me). She is primarily a CBT therapist but she uses other methods as well.

The first year I made a ton of progress and learned a lot, but the second year I felt myself slowly slipping back into HA and have had a rough last few months.

I feel like once I seemed "better", and I had learned about a lot of the terms like "catastrophizing" and strategies like "exposures", our meetings kind of stagnated. I was never really sure what to talk about. It kind of devolved into me just telling her anything I could remember if I had a health thought or not during the time between meetings and I was often ending the session early.

So my question is to the therapy veterans -I'm curious as to what anyone here typically discusses after you've become a regular therapy patient for awhile. Is it just a recap? Sharing symptoms like a lot of posts here? I feel like I plateaued and then lost momentum and wondering if maybe I have been approaching my sessions the wrong way.

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[MyNameIsTerry]

I think it's inevitable that this is going to happen during long term therapy. I found the same attending weekly walk-in sessions at a local charity.

Progress speeds vary, there is no constant progression in these disorders. So, things stagnate as you don't progress between sessions. What my therapist did with this is to spread them out further to allow more time to move on. That's a double edged sword too as you can fall into ruts if you aren't pushing yourself enough (I struggled with this).

If it's just about this weeks illness being feared or comparing symptoms, that needs looking at in my opinion otherwise it runs the risk of being a reassurance seeking session where the patient starts to rely on the therapist as an ear rather than a therapist. But they will be trained to spot and adjust for this.

CBT is so limited over here that it's less easy to fall into the therapist crutch pattern unless you pay private since you don't get that many sessions. But I've seen people paying for years of weekly CBT and I find that concerning if progress isn't being made (the industry is self regulation only so open to abuse).

[swajj]

My psychiatrist refused to discuss symptoms. I find it odd that your therapist was willing to do so.

[jray23]

Thanks guys. She won't respond to my symptoms, both since she isn't a doctor and can't provide medical advice, and because she doesn't want to be an assurance source. She'll typically challenge my thought process.

I do think I got in a big rut, due to doing well for awhile! I'm finding out through research that my recent nose dive back into anxiety can certainly be blamed on my vestibular dysfunction that has been going on for 3 months now, so perhaps my therapy is still going fine just under adverse circumstances now. In fact it feels like the last couple sessions have been much less of a rut and much more in depth and productive.

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[Halle0587]

My therapist asks how my week was, then she asks if I need to discuss anything pressing. I mentioned a symptom once and she just smiled and said ok today we will do eft for health anxiety. She gives me resources and talks a lot about the 9 gamut technique. She does music therapy as well, so we’ve done some of that too. I like that she has a lot of different ideas for me to try to do when I’m not able to see her.

[swajj]

My psychiatrist had a medical degree but he still refused to discuss symptoms.


My psychiatrist was absolutely instrumental in my recovery but I always felt that he never really understood health anxiety. I’ve never known anyone who does and I honestly believe that no one does.

---------- Post added at 19:50 ---------- Previous post was at 19:43 ----------

Every now and then I will read a post on here that reminds me of how I used to be. It scares the crap out of me because I never want to be in that place again.

On a more positive note I am recovered. So recovery is possible.