Hey everybody.
Today I'm going to talk with you about treatment plans.
What are they.
And how do we put them together?
So like I said,
Today I'm going to talk with you about treatment plans.
Now some of you may not even know what that means.
Now a treatment plan is something that you will put together with your therapist.
And it's part of the whole 'plan' for your 'treatment'.
How we get you from from point a to point b, your main goal.
Now at the beginning when you first come in to therapy,
Your therapist will ask you, 'What brought you here today?'
If I get asked that one more time when I go in to a therapist office,
When I had to switch therapists.
'What brings you in here today?'
But what they're really asking is, What's your main goal.
What's going on in your life that you're struggling with.
And how can I help you?
That's really what they're asking.
And so from the beginning, we're trying to figure out what your main goal is.
If we could help you fix one thing lickety split, what would it be?
Now we put that at the bottom of this piece of paper.
Imagine this is a piece of paper.
Your treatment plan.
At the bottom goes 'your main goal', why you're here, what I can help you with.
And we're going to work backwards from there.
So we can get you there.
Got it.
Now some therapists may tell you that they are working on a treatment plan.
Some may not talk about it.
It might be something they do, you know, after hours.
I do a lot of work on them after hours.
But I do also mention it to some of my patients as we kind of walk through it.
So just so you know.
They may say something, they may not.
Every therapist is different.
So once we get your main goal.
Next comes what I call the 'assessment period'.
Now that is when we may make diagnosis based on what struggles you have.
Or things that you have mentioned and brought up.
Or maybe diagnosis that we already got from a previous therapist.
All of this kind of depends on your process.
Where you're at.
And we may already have a bunch of information coming in.
Or we may work with you and try to figure out where you're at,
And what you're struggling with.
We're going to ask you a lot of questions.
This is when we ask maybe, are you in school.
How is school going.
How is work going.
Are you in a relationship.
How old is your brother.
How old is your sister.
Do you, how old are your parents.
Are your parents together or are they separated.
All these questions.
About you.
About what's going on with you.
We may also ask about your history.
How you were raised.
And how long your parents have been divorced.
Or all sorts of things like that to find out who you are, and where you are now.
And that really is what I call kind of the 'meat of the treatment plan'.
Is when we are trying to assess where you are,
And during that time we are going to give you some homework.
Or some things to try based on that information.
Those kind of things that I put in workbooks.
The little trial and error things that I talk about,
So that you can go out in the week between our sessions, give them a go.
And then let me know, report back. What worked and what didn't work.
Do you follow so far?
So we have taken your main goal.
We've put that down at the bottom of our treatment plan.
We're assessing you, possibly diagnosing you.
Taking your history.
And then we are giving you some homework and work to do in between.
Now this can take a long time.
A lot of times the process of trial and error,
With different plans and trials of things we think may work.
Like talking back to that negative voice.
Or getting out of the house two days a week.
Or maybe calling that friend that you haven't connected with.
It could be a bunch of different things.
It can take us a while to get through them, right.
It just didn't happen overnight.
We can't fix it overnight.
But know that your therapist is spending time in the evening.
Probably right after your session, or at the end of the day.
Going through this.
Trying to think of new things.
Trying to research what's working for other people.
Trying to put together maybe some journal topics for you.
To get you from where you are now.
To your main goal.
And I'm going to check my notes to make sure I didn't forget anything.
Oh, and.
The main goal of a therapist.
My main goal for every client.
Is that at the end, they don't have to be in therapy any more.
They can fly free.
But that being said,
I always have an open door policy.
Where my whole goal of this treatment plan,
Is to get you working on your own using your own tools.
You have your own tool box of all of the things that have worked.
That we have done, talked about in therapy and done in therapy together.
And you're going to use them on your own.
And so you feel good being out on your own, using your tools.
And you may not have to check in with me every week.
Maybe every other week for a while.
And then soon enough you're thinking,
'I don't think that I need to be in therapy'.
But then maybe you need to come back for a tune up.
And one of the most important things that I want all of you to hear right now.
Is that coming back to therapy does not mean that you have failed.
There is no shame involved in it.
It's not something that's embarrassing.
To be truthful, from the therapist standpoint,
It's exciting.
Do you know what that means.
That means that you have worked so hard in our time together.
That you have gained such insight.
That you have recognised when you are slipping.
And you get back into therapy.
You pre-emptively strike.
We nip it in the bud.
We stop it from getting worse, right.
That's really hard to do.
And I am always so proud of my patients who have left and then come back.
That they were able to do that.
Because it's a process, right.
We all slip up sometimes.
We may need a little booster session to keep us going.
That's how life is.
Things get stressful sometimes.
And we need a little extra support.
And there is no shame in that.
So whatever level or whatever stage of your treatment plan you are in.
Keep working with your therapist.
And I cannot encourage you enough to be as honest as you can.
Because your honesty around the assessments and what tools work.
Really end up helping you the most.
Because when you leave therapy,
I want you to have a tool box full of things that actually work for you.
And ones that you will actually use.
So if something's not working.
Speak up.
If you need to try something else, let them know.
Because we're here to help you, right.
And I hope that just sheds a little light on what therapists do behind the scenes.
Or after sessions.
Because, I mean.
Some people wonder, they'll come to my office,
'So what do therapists, what do you actually do?'
And that's really what I actually do.
I spend a lot of time on treatment plans.
And so hopefully now you can kind of understand why we have different tools each week.
And why we challenge you to do something different.
And it's kind of our process, right.
So keep working with me.
Keep checking back.
As we work as a team towards a healthy mind, and a healthy body.
I was just thinking, a treatment plan is really like a road map.
To get us from where we are now.
To where we really want to be.
It just helps kind of structure that.
You know.
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I'll see you soon.
Bye!
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