How Often Should You Go to Therapy?
Perhaps the most common question we receive from people starting therapy is: How Often Should I Go to Therapy? I woould love to give a specific answer, have your question resolved, and leave it at that. But that just isn’t accurate.
The ideal frequency of therapy depends on many factors, including one’s schedule, symptoms, treatment goals, type of therapy, and budget. There are some general recommendations, but ideally your therapist can help you find a schedule that works for you and your life circumstances.
The Short Answer: Weekly Therapy Is Generally the Best Place to Start
The most straightforward answer is that weekly therapy is generally the ideal starting point. Research has found weekly sessions to produce “faster trajectories of change,” “greater likelihood of recovery,” and “greater likelihood of recovery sooner.”
With our online therapy practice, we almost always start with weekly sessions if it works with the individual’s schedule and budget. Weekly sessions give appropriate focus, time, and energy to the issue you’re facing. Especially as the relationship progresses, you may drop down to less frequent therapy sessions.
Why Therapy Frequency Matters
There are many reasons therapy frequency matters. With more regular sessions, you give yourself the best chance at truly addressing the problem. As time goes on, you may not need weekly support. We have many people we see once every other week, once a month, or less frequently just to check in.
Momentum
With only a week between sessions, you can maintain momentum with your therapy. This is most important at the beginning of therapy or during especially difficult experiences. Short gaps between sessions helps keep your treatment goals and skills fresh. With longer gaps, you might spend valuable session time focusing on what happened rather than relating it to your ongoing work together.
Skill Development
Many therapies involve applying skills outside of sessions. For example, if you’re in therapy for anxiety, you may be given mindfulness-based practices, thought reframing methods, or trigger tracking techniques. With just a week between sessions, you have time to try something for a week, observe how it works, and review it with your therapist.
The Therapeutic Relationship
Especially in the beginning of the relationship, regular therapy helps build the therapeutic relationship. It’s much easier to feel safe, understood, and willing to be vulnerable when you’re meeting regularly. Seeing a therapist once a month to start won’t create the connection and safety that weekly sessions will.
Urgency and Relevancy
With long gaps between sessions, acute symptoms may not be addressed quickly. You may have an anxiety attack today, but not have therapy for another three weeks! More frequent therapy sessions give you the opportunity to address things as they arise, rather than holding onto them for weeks.
Again, this is especially important and useful in new therapeutic relationships and in trying times. When the relationship has been established, skills are being used, and everything is going smoothly, less frequent sessions may be appropriate.
How Often Should You go Based on Your Situation?
You are an individual. What works for you or helps you feel supported may not be what works for someone else. I encourage you to take your personal experience into account when considering how often you should go to therapy. Here are a few general guidelines we use as therapists.
Weekly Therapy
Weekly therapy is often the norm. Whether it’s to support someone dealing with anxiety, depression, life transitions, or whatever, weekly therapy is the default. We recommend starting here, and making adjustments as you and your therapist see fit.
Twice Weekly Therapy
For those experiencing more severe symptoms or in the midst of crisis, therapy sessions twice a week can be useful. We often see this with severe symptoms, trauma treatment, or highly stressful life situations.
Every Other Week
For those experiencing stability, progress with treatment goals, and manageable symptoms, therapy might take place every other week. Here at One Mind Therapy, many of the individuals we see move from weekly sessions to biweekly sessions as they feel comfortable doing so. This also may be appropriate for those with constrictions regarding scheduling or budget.
Monthly Therapy
We almost never start people with monthly therapy. Monthly therapy sessions are best for people who feel they need a check-in, some support in maintaining their growth, or preventing relapse. The monthly session can help give someone accountability, offer some feedback, and keep one’s techniques and coping mechanisms fresh in their minds.
Determining Factors
There are many determining factors that play a role in how often you should go to therapy. As mentioned, weekly therapy is the norm. But there are many things to consider
Symptoms
Perhaps the most important factor is the severity of symptoms. For those struggling with the pain of an emotional affair, weekly therapy can be appropriate. For those in the midst of a contentious custody battle and experiencing panic attacks, therapy twice a week may be better.
There isn’t a set list of symptoms that require this frequency and another that require that frequency. It’s up to your experience and how you feel. As your symptoms subside and you learn ways to work with them, less frequent sessions become appropriate.
Goals
Treatment goals are intimately related to the symptoms and their severity. If your goal is to work with anxiety at night, weekly sessions can be a good fit. If your goal is to just have someone to check in with and maintain growth, monthly sessions might be better.
Some people come to therapy with very immediate treatment goals. In crisis management cases like this, more frequent therapy sessions are beneficial. Others just want to build skills and sustain long-term growth. With these cases, a tight schedule isn’t as necessary.
Type of Therapy
There are many types of individual therapy, not to mention the different types of couples therapy. Many therapies, such as EMDR, CBT, Harm Reduction Therapy, and Psychodynamic therapy traditionally begin with weekly therapy.
Other types of therapy have different norms. Intensive Outpatient Programs offer therapy 3-5 days a week and many types of trauma therapy can be done with a few sessions a week. Maintenance therapy, medication management, and occupational therapy might be done less frequently.
Your Schedule
Obviously your schedule plays a role in how frequently you’ll go to therapy. Therapy should be a priority, but it ideally won’t cause difficulties or stress elsewhere in your life. Although weekly therapy may generally be best, it simply isn’t practical for many people.
One of the benefits of online therapy is a more open schedule and less travel time getting to sessions. This means you may not need to change your entire schedule to make therapy work.
Budget
Finally, finances play an inevitable role. Many people can’t afford weekly therapy. Again, therapy should ideally not cause additional stress in one’s life. For those on a budget, your therapist may be able to offer some adjustments to frequency in order to caree for your wellbeing.
How Long Will You Need Therapy?
This is a separate issue from frequency, and one that is hard to answer. It depends on the type of therapist you see, your symptoms and goals, and what happens in your life. Therapeutic interventions often take 8-20 sessions, while other cases require several months. And some individuals stay in therapy for years for ongoing growth, most often via monthly sessions rather than weekly.
If you or somebody you know needs support, please contact us. We are here to support you!
