Why therapy didn't work the first time

Most people who quit therapy never got enough of it to know whether it worked.

On a Medicare mental health plan, the average person sticks with therapy for only about 5 sessions. The research says it takes more like 13 to 18 for people to really improve. So a first try that stopped at session two or three was never a fair test.

You also might recognise one of these:

1. You stopped when the gap fee added up, not because it wasn’t helping.
2. The psychologist never measured whether you were improving.
3. The therapy was aimed at anxiety, when the real cause, undiagnosed, was never named.

One thing to do before you start again: decide up front this isn’t a two-session experiment, and ask your psychologist to track your progress. You can say it in one line. “Can we track whether this is working, so we’d both know if it isn’t?”

There’s also a way to start again without a GP referral, and for some people in South Western Sydney it costs nothing.

​To see who qualifies, and how, click here​

Nicole Robinson​ Principal and Clinical Psychologist, ProActive Psychology ​proactivepsychology.com.au​