Mental health professionals…

Basically i have a mental health key worker…like i guess a therapist… under the NHS free services CAMHS and i guess shes okay and alright however recently i swapped from face to face sessions to virtual sessions due to my life difficulties and housing situations…

And online for the past 2 weeks.. I’ve noticed how our sessions are significantly smaller in length…for example my sessions usually were from 55 minutes to an hour….approximately…with this therapist because that is the usual time… and even with my old key worker it was always roughly an over sometimes we ran over as she loved to talk…a lot … but for the past two weeks my virtual sessions are much smaller like say 48 minutes, and then this weeks was 37 minutes ….

I don’t know what to do…i kind of want to ask jer but don’t know how to ask without it being awkward and weird because i usually dont speak about small things that i don’t necessarily like…i just keep it to myself and overthink it again and again..

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Original post by Depressed686

Basically i have a mental health key worker…like i guess a therapist… under the NHS free services CAMHS and i guess shes okay and alright however recently i swapped from face to face sessions to virtual sessions due to my life difficulties and housing situations…

And online for the past 2 weeks.. I’ve noticed how our sessions are significantly smaller in length…for example my sessions usually were from 55 minutes to an hour….approximately…with this therapist because that is the usual time… and even with my old key worker it was always roughly an over sometimes we ran over as she loved to talk…a lot … but for the past two weeks my virtual sessions are much smaller like say 48 minutes, and then this weeks was 37 minutes ….

I don’t know what to do…i kind of want to ask jer but don’t know how to ask without it being awkward and weird because i usually dont speak about small things that i don’t necessarily like…i just keep it to myself and overthink it again and again..

It sounds like you're being "short-changed". How did the most recent session end? Did it naturally run out of steam, with you not saying much? Or did she almost "interrupt" it, in order to end the session after just 37 minutes?

You could ask, "Before we start, can you remind me how long each of these sessions is supposed to last?" She may well respond that they're not "supposed" to last any particular length of time but would typically be between "X and Y" minutes.

Or you could pre-empt that response by saying, "I know these sessions aren't supposed to last a full hour

Reply 2

Depressed686

OP

11

Original post by DataVenia

It sounds like you're being "short-changed". How did the most recent session end? Did it naturally run out of steam, with you not saying much? Or did she almost "interrupt" it, in order to end the session after just 37 minutes?
You could ask, "Before we start, can you remind me how long each of these sessions is supposed to last?" She may well respond that they're not "supposed" to last any particular length of time but would typically be between "X and Y" minutes.
Or you could pre-empt that response by saying, "I know these sessions aren't supposed to last a full hour

Well it had been a session with both me and my mum …. And then she asked if i had any questions about anything…or if i had anything i wanted to rasise…i didn’t… so she booked my next session and good bye (okay now i feel it might have been my fault) but like i didn’t get a proper chance to speak to her she didn’t ask how my week went or anything… i had no questions-…. Session before that i had quite lot so say and i said a decent amount and then after she changed the subject she showed me a website which had tons of dialectical behaviour therapy skills.. and then sent me a video to watch on radical acceptance saying the videos dont work online as great and that she had to see a another client in a bit.. and ended it at 48 minutes… so it was 4 48 pm- now her other session would be most definitely on 5pm..

Will she hate me if i bring it up…

What do you think the average session length should be…

Also i don’t know if it’s just me because my previous therapist was was kind of too friendly….i liked her but she spoke a lot… so now i know all about her childhood life and how she grew up , her family background, her history of working in the nhs and how messed up certain hospitals are , her politic and views on covid , wars , genocides , her life difficulties eg. Her son being sectioned, her other son having liver failure, her third son telling her to get lost- all her life difficulties. And then her new job which she had started….now she always said tell me to shut up if I say too much but im the type of person who would never say that…apart from immediate family im a a very polite, kind, understanding…and sometimes quiet person…

Reply 3

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Original post by Depressed686

Well it had been a session with both me and my mum …. And then she asked if i had any questions about anything…or if i had anything i wanted to rasise…i didn’t… so she booked my next session and good bye (okay now i feel it might have been my fault) but like i didn’t get a proper chance to speak to her she didn’t ask how my week went or anything… i had no questions-…. Session before that i had quite lot so say and i said a decent amount and then after she changed the subject she showed me a website which had tons of dialectical behaviour therapy skills.. and then sent me a video to watch on radical acceptance saying the videos dont work online as great and that she had to see a another client in a bit.. and ended it at 48 minutes… so it was 4 48 pm- now her other session would be most definitely on 5pm..

Will she hate me if i bring it up…

What do you think the average session length should be…

Also i don’t know if it’s just me because my previous therapist was was kind of too friendly….i liked her but she spoke a lot… so now i know all about her childhood life and how she grew up , her family background, her history of working in the nhs and how messed up certain hospitals are , her politic and views on covid , wars , genocides , her life difficulties eg. Her son being sectioned, her other son having liver failure, her third son telling her to get lost- all her life difficulties. And then her new job which she had started….now she always said tell me to shut up if I say too much but im the type of person who would never say that…apart from immediate family im a a very polite, kind, understanding…and sometimes quiet person…

So, when she asked, "if i had anything i wanted to rasise", that was likely her way of saying, "I'm thinking of wrapping up the session, unless you've got something you'd like to discuss". That was your opportunity to say, "Do we have time to talk about how my week went?"

If a therapist is seeing one person per hour, then they'll need some time between patients to write-up a few notes, grab a coffee, go to the loo, check who they're seeing next, etc. I think you'd normally expect this to take about 10 minutes. So a "therapeutic hour" is often about 50 minutes in reality.

The fact that your previous therapist did a lot of talking (way too much by the sound of it) may have led you to expect that your new will therapist to do the same. It sounds like she's really looking for more of a dialogue, or for you to do most of the talking. If she feels you're "talked out" she might be drawing the session to a close just to avoid making it uncomfortable for you, with you thinking you have to say something. (Clearing, I'm completely guessing here.)

As to, "Will she hate me if i bring it up…" - no, she won't.