I’m sad and kind of scared to stop working with my therapist. I’ve been doing therapy through the app and my therapist is great. She’s super nice and understanding and I’ve enjoyed my sessions with her, as well as seen progress with doing ERP. Today was my 8th and final session but after talking with support we are able to have a couple more check in sessions. I just don’t feel ready to be on my own I guess, without a therapist to check in with and talk to when I’m dealing with something. I was so happy to work with not only a therapist but an OCD specialist. Whenever our sessions wrap up I don’t know if I’ll have to find another one, and from my previous research it’s a psychologist in the next town over, but that means starting over yet again with another therapist. I’d love to keep working with my own but I don’t know how long I am supposed to be with a therapist so am I supposed to start learning to let go now or what do I do?

purewater

Date posted: 5y

This sounds like a good thing to bring up to your therapist, and brainstorm ways you can be self-sufficient moving forward. and it's okay to admit that therapy could be a lifelong journey, perhaps it needs to happen on and off throughout your life

Evelyn4416

Date posted: 5y

Yes I think I’ll mention it to her. I don’t want to hold on to her as a “safety blanket” either, but I feel more comfortable having a professional resource to check in with and talk to when something comes up

Fathomable

Date posted: 5y

Maybe if you can take the things you've learned and in a sense their voice and their presence and encouragement with you, it will feel like they're with you and guiding you when you do ERP alone or when you aren't sure what to do. That's what I've found.

pureolife

Date posted: 5y

Do they only allow 8 sessions? That’s strange to me. Especially since most people take 6+ months of therapy to recover. It’s perfectly normal and understandable to not be ready to be done with therapy right now. Definitely discuss this with them and ask to keep working together. If for some reason they can’t/won’t, many others therapists offer online therapy. The nice thing about ERP is that it’s actually a pretty easy approach to pick up with a new therapist compared to other techniques out there (like psychoanalysis where you often talk through your entire life story in heavy detail.)

pureolife

Date posted: 5y

For reference it took me about 7 months to be ready to stop therapy. I worked with my therapist through my entire hierarchy for my theme at the time.

Evelyn4416

Date posted: 5y

That’s what I’ve been hearing constantly if you’re doing the program with NOCD. It’s supposed to be just 8 sessions, but after me and my therapist communicated with NOCD services on adding more sessions, we were allowed 2 more check in (30 min) sessions. I think it’s weird as well. I would like more for now, I don’t feel ready to stop. We haven’t even reached the top of my hierarchy, so am I just supposed to do that on my own?

pureolife

Date posted: 5y

@Evelyn4416 I’m not sure and wouldn’t be able to answer that question but hopefully your therapist can. Once you get in the swing of doing exposures you kind of stop needing their guidance but, like you, I appreciated having someone to check in with for support and to hold me accountable and simply to talk to about how hard it is as a way to validate my feelings. I prefer not talking to my partner or family about OCD because they don’t understand it and therefore can only listen and usually give counter productive advise — and then I have to spend more time explaining why I can’t simply follow their advice and it’s exhausting. It’s much easier to tell something to my therapist because she immediately understands. It helps with feeling less lonely in this whole thing too. I’m sorry their sessions are so limited right now! It sounds like you may want to find another therapist once you run out of sessions. Just make sure they’re an ocd specialist and trained in ERP.

Evelyn4416

Date posted: 5y

@pureolife Yes exactly! My family doesn’t really get it and I’m still in the process of trying to inform them little by little. But with my therapist I know she gets it and it really does help you to feel seen and heard properly. I did contact my therapist and she said she could call me later to talk about it so hopefully something can be done

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