How to be a good patient in psychotherapy?

Let's see how we, as patients, have to do our part to make therapy go well.

Many of us ask ourselves questions like: How can we identify a good or a bad psychologist? About this you can find several articles on the Internet, in magazines and many other places where they give recommendations and even instructions.

But... How can we identify if we are a good patient? What do we patients have to do in therapy?

To find out what people think about this, I conducted a survey and was able to find some interesting things.

The keys to being a good patient in psychotherapy.

Most of us believe that the treating psychologist should know when we lie. This idea arises from the belief that psychologists have practically psychic powers and are able to read minds. Otherwise, they may come to think that we are bad therapists.

To counteract this we must recognize the following points and understand and respect the agreement between therapists and patientswhich is to assume that psychologists are human beings:

• Are human beings
• They are not mind readers
• They do not have all the knowledge

And about the therapeutic process, in order to to adopt the role of the patient well the following key ideas should be kept in mind:

• If you do not say what worries you, lie and omit parts, the psychologist is going to give a false diagnosis or else it will take longer to be able to treat the conflict
• Therapy is a process and must have continuity.
• Punctuality
• Commitment and responsibility with payments
• Maintain the focus of the conflict and do not digress.
• Ask questions when you do not understand an intervention
• Comply with the tasks assigned
• Have a genuine interest in resolving your conflicts
• Be open-minded
• Arrive on your own and not obligated
• Avoid schedule changes
• Talk about your conflicts and not think about how to make yourself look good with the therapist.
• Do not cancel the appointment if you do not "feel like it" or are "afraid".
• Remember that today's resistance has tomorrow's knowledge.
• It is important to talk about feelings

There is also a conscious and unconscious need to manipulate and control the therapist's interventions.. These desires are completely normal, but as patients, making it conscious will help to move forward and overcome conflicts in this regard.

How to achieve this?

Many of these skills are learned throughout therapy, but what better to be informed to be able to have an open mind and overcome the psychic conflicts we face.

Prejudices on the part of the patient are common when starting a treatment; that is why when attending psychotherapy we must stand firm in order to achieve the goals we want..

Venturing into therapy can cause discomfort, fears and anxieties; but that is also completely normal, it is part of the process. It is necessary to address these issues with the therapist in order to break away from the established and get out of the comfort zone.

Common fears

Confidentiality is something that many patients believe is violated. But if it is an issue that can stress us out, the best thing we can do as patients is to open up the channels of communication and know that the therapist will always be a person we can trust..

In other cases we believe that in therapy we will be judged, that we are completely wrong in our perceptions and that can cause us a lot of headaches. In certain contexts, therapy has had a bad reputation because of the If you are "crazy" you need to go to a psychologist.but this idea is not at all close to reality. Here I will tell you a secret as a therapist: usually, the one who wants to go to therapy is not crazy. To go to therapy you do not necessarily have to have a recent or traumatic conflict with which you feel you can no longer cope.

What to expect from the psychotherapeutic process?

You can go to therapy to...

• Get to know yourself
• Improve attitudes
• Improve relationships even if they appear to be good.
• Improve in areas of study or work
• Acquire emotional intelligence
• To face daily problems in a healthy way.
• Improve yourself every day
• Overcome body image problems
• Improve a couple's relationship

If you go to therapy when you are well, you can avoid major conflicts, strong traumas or losses, such as breakups or family conflicts.

In addition, taking children to therapy is also very useful; we can address conflicts and traumas before they become entrenched and more difficult to deal with. and become more difficult to deal with. It also fosters their ability to learn to regulate their emotions. Thus in the future they will know how to manage their emotions rationally, and maintain lasting, deep and healthy relationships.

Children's therapy is a joint work with their caregivers, a process in which they can get to know each other, reinforce family love and heal wounds, clarify confusions and help the caregivers to maintain a healthy and respectful relationship.

The therapy in adolescents who as children went to the psychologist therapy is very useful, to be able to clarify and reinforce good attitudes; adolescence is a completely different stage from childhood, in which we face different problems.

As for the couple relationships, it is an ideal option to be able to have common goals. ideal to be able to have goals in common to know how to communicate, to know each other and to have a communicative intimacy. that leads people to a successful and lasting relationship.

In conclusion

No, psychology is not only for the "crazy" or for those of us who are already bad. It is a powerful weapon that we can use to know ourselves and to be able to become better and better.

I invite you to be a good patient, remove your prejudices, heal and learn more about you and for you.