Having goals to work towards in therapy can be really helpful. This process makes sure that you and your therapist are working together as well as possible on the issues that matter most to you. For some people therapy can be like going on a journey. Having goals to work towards means that you and your therapist can keep your destination in mind throughout the process.
Your therapist will want to set up the therapy so that you stand the best chance in reaching your goals. Having attainable goals will give mean that you are helping set yourself up for success.
Sometimes it can be understandably difficult to have specific goals at the start of therapy. In which case even having a general goal like “feeling better” can be a great goal to start with! As we know that having some specific goals can help focus the therapy and boost the outcomes of your therapy, your therapist will work with you to help you work out your specific goals. With the example goal of “feeling better”, the next step might be understand in what ways you would like to feel better.
Having goals for therapy will help keep the therapy going where you want it to go
Having goals that you and your therapist can measure can also be really useful. This enables progress to be monitored during therapy. Ultimately, this will help you know when you have achieved a particular goal. Another valuable part of having goals that can be measured is that this can guide your therapist in tailoring the therapy to help you take the next steps to get to where you want to be. Likewise, knowing when you would like a goal to be reached can be valuable in keeping the therapy focussed because your time is precious.
Sometimes our goals for therapy can change and this is absolutely OK. If your goals change, then the most important thing is to talk about this with your therapist.
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