Mental Health for Men: Therapy Time

Therapy is uniquely different from therapist to therapist. This is because each therapist has different life experiences and different training. In this blog, I'll talk about my thoughts on your therapy time.

When you're in a session with me, this is your sacred time. The therapy session is your therapy session. This is not my therapy session. I shouldn’t be going on and on about myself. The focus should be on you and your issues. My job is to help you get to where you want to go. I'm your sherpa. I provide a general road map and feedback. This is your journey. I’m here to make sure you’re headed in the right direction.

Mental Health for Men: This is Talk Therapy

A common conversation I have with clients who are new to therapy is the idea of talking too much. This is your session. My style is you can talk as much or as little as you want to. It's up to you. This doesn’t mean I’m going to allow you to go from one tangent to the next tangent nonstop. As I said earlier, my job is to help you get to where you want to go. If I need to slow you down to make sure I understand what's going on then I will. I will step into the conversation and ask for some clarification. This is typical because many people do not know what to expect in therapy. Please remember everything you say and do provides information to help me build a treatment plan.

Theoretically, there is an idea that the issues you experience outside of the therapy room also occur in the therapy room. Your dynamics are always present with you. With that said, it is a therapist’s job to understand and recognize these dynamics. These dynamics will play a role in your treatment plan. 

Here is an example of this in action. A therapist asks a question. The client begins to answer the question. They explain the situation and what is going on. They steered the conversation towards another topic. The client talks for several minutes. The client then says something along the lines of 'This feels like I’m just talking now.’ 

Breaking this down, there can be many possible explanations for this interaction. The therapist asked a question thought to be useful for the client to explore. The client explored the question and then steered the conversation in another direction. Did the client recognize that they changed the topic? Is the topic too difficult to discuss for the client? Is the change in topic avoidance to discuss the original topic? Does the client feel that there are more important topics to discuss? Is the client present at the moment? Is the client continuing to talk purely to fill the space? Does the client talk because they feel like they need to let the therapist know about this other issue? It’s a therapist's job to decode what the client is trying to get through to them.

Information is Gained Whether you Talk or Not

As I said earlier, the way I work is you can talk as much or as little as you want. If I recognize a pattern, a habit, or a mannerism that plays a role in your treatment, I will stop you or come back to it when the time is right. If I feel an action is warranted, I will 100% take that action if I feel it will benefit you. Otherwise, you do you. Everything that you do in the session provides more and more information. How a therapist takes that information in and processes it to help you achieve your goal varies from clinician to clinician. 

In my office, therapy time is your time to do whatever it is you need to do. There are a few limitations I have in place such as if there are emergency situations like suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation. Besides a few limits that I have in place, you are free to do whatever you want. Do you want to cuss and use profanity? Great. Have at it. Do you want to scream and shout? Wonderful. Do you want to pause the session and go to the bathroom? Sure. You can do almost anything you want. Know that we will have a discussion about it. The bottom line is that when you are in session with me, I want you to be your most authentic self possible. You do you!

Get Mental Health Treatment for Men

Address your mental health with therapy with Chris Rabanera. Take the first steps with a free 15-minute consultation. I offer online therapy in California, Michigan, Nebraska, and Las Vegas. As an experienced therapist, I specialize in physician burnout, grief counseling, anxiety, and depression. I also provide tailored mental health treatment for men.