What Are The Goals For Individual Therapy?

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Goals for individual therapy depend on your personal set of needs and working with a provider who can effectively direct your ability to meet them. While there are many ways to practice psychotherapy and counseling, all providers should be focused on equipping you with the psychological resources you need to eventually practice the independent art of how to self-heal.

When I practice individual therapy, I support the development of a person’s ability to recognize, identify, comprehend, and articulate their thoughts and feelings. To articulate their thoughts and feelings relative to their behavior. And to consider how these realities impact (and are impacted by) relationships in their lives. 

In this article, you’ll learn some of the more common goals for individual therapy and how a therapist can help you set and meet goals suitable for you. We’ll also explore tips for achieving your goals so you can awaken and integrate many parts of yourself and feel whole.

Introducing Individual Therapy

Individual therapy is traditionally considered a process by which people seek healing through dialogue with a formally trained, state-licensed professional. In many types of individual therapy, sessions are designed to be a place for you to discuss anything you have a desire to talk about and/or are working to heal, change, grow, or evolve in your life.

In the beginning, no matter the therapist or counselor you choose, you should reasonably expect to feel seen, heard, and validated for the experiences you share. In fact, therapy often starts with defining those ideas.

From you, your therapist may want to learn:

• What does being seen mean to you?

• What is it like for you to be seen?

• What parts of you would you like to be seen?

• What parts might you be inclined to hide?

• What does it look like if you are uncomfortable being seen?

As therapy continues, and as the relationship strengthens between you and your therapist, you may also begin to experience thoughtful and intentional challenges. 

A general therapy goal is that you can engage in alternative ways of understanding how you think and feel. The hope is that expanded understanding can lead to improved thought processes, optimized emotion management, and sustained behavior change.

While therapy challenges can sometimes feel hard, your therapist should be able to support your ability to identify, choose, and tolerate the demand.

The ultimate goal (where possible) is for you to continue and maintain healing on your own – when you’re ready. In other words, the goal is for you to take the experiences you’ve mastered in individual therapy and employ what you’ve learned – on your own.

Individual Therapy Goals

Every person’s life, experiences, relationships, and mental health must be understood as nuanced. Nuanced meaning, psychological concepts, principles, and theories may be a helpful guide if they are applied accurately to the uniqueness of each individual. Said another way, therapy isn’t one-size-fits-all, and goals should be highly personalized for every individual.

For authentic self-discovery and to effectively strengthen your emotional self-awareness, you'll want to set individual therapy goals with your therapist that help you best understand yourself. Doing so will support you in developing a deep, authentic self-acceptance and self-love, which are a necessary condition for healing, growth & change.

Individual therapy goals are often most attainable when they are developed collaboratively with your therapist. And you might want to note: the decision to begin therapy, in and of itself, is very much the first accomplished goal. (Make sure to give yourself that credit from the start!) 

But generally speaking, people come to individual therapy to explore why they possess certain thought patterns and/or act out specific, dysfunctional coping mechanisms. Therapy is also an excellent option for those who feel defeated by hard-to-break patterns & cycles, whether they be thought, feeling, or behavior.

While there’s a wide range of goals you might work towards, common goals for individual therapy include:

• Managing personal versus professional identity intersections

• Understanding the relevance & influence of family-of-origin dynamics

• Releasing yourself from difficult-to-change relational patterns

• Identifying the root cause(s) of long-term challenges

• Learning what boundaries are and effective strategies for implementing them

• Examining identity, self-esteem, self-image, and self-care issues

• Developing a clearer sense of self

• Navigating life changes (e.g., loss, a new job, becoming a parent, bereavement, etc.)

• Developing better relationships with yourself and/or others

How effective is individual therapy?

Therapy is most effective and transformative for those who crave healing, change, growth, and evolution. Therefore, the more interested you are in these concepts, the higher the likelihood that you will find them effective.

Also, how effective therapy can be depends, as this article shares, on the goals you set. When goals are clear, specific, and actionable, it makes it easier to measure. Checking in on the goals throughout the process of therapy is an important piece to ensuring its efficacy.

It's also important to work with a therapist that’s right for you and one you can create a meaningful therapeutic relationship with. This supports your ability to choose goals that are both realistic and attainable. Often, when people think therapy isn’t “effective,” it’s because the expectations aren’t realistic and/or the therapist-client fit isn’t ideal.

But if you're willing to connect with a therapist you trust to actively participate in your therapy process, individual therapy can help you effectively overcome your blocks and find harmony.

Goal Setting in Individual Therapy

Goals for individual therapy are co-created and developed by the client and therapist simultaneously. Sometimes, the client is in the driver's seat, and sometimes, the therapist is, but they always drive in the direction the client wants to go. Who drives when, how, and why depends on what's coming up and what will keep the vehicle safe, intact, and strong. 

My client’s wants and needs are always the focus of our work. I believe in each of my clients as autonomous, capable human beings, even when they lack the confidence to believe in themselves in that way. To me, that’s a great opportunity to sustainably build it.

Often, the experience of being seen and believed in by a therapist leads clients to extend that same consideration to themselves. Usually, this generates a more accurate self-understanding that benefits the client in lasting and unexpected ways. And ultimately, enables it to be exchanged in important relationships.

A core goal of individual therapy is for you to develop a stronger, more comprehensive, and realistic understanding of yourself. Achieving this goal can offer you an increased sense of control over your life, including your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and relationships. This can lead to any of the following outcomes or more: 

• You heal deeply from relationships or experiences that have been weighing on you for an extended period 

• You effectively begin or conclude important relationships in your life – in ways that make you feel proud and excited 

• You grow confident about your ability to experience, accept, and integrate multiple truths at once 

• You enjoy a heightened sense of self-esteem, more positive self-regard, and authentic self-compassion 

8 Tips for Setting and Meeting Your Goals for Individual Therapy

Because we are unique humans, how you set and meet your goals should be customized for you. For example, one person working towards a specific goal may do so differently than another person working to meet the same goal. And/or two people may work in the same way to achieve two different goals.

Here are some tips for making sure that you optimize your goal-reaching potential:

1. Choose a therapist who is committed to being an active participant in the goal-setting process

2. Ask your therapist questions about how they’ve helped clients achieve goals in the past

3. Be honest with yourself about how you experience your therapist and the process

4. Allow your therapist to empower you to recognize your strengths, blocks, needs, and desires 

5. Consider goals that are genuinely realistic and confirm that with your therapist

6. Identify ways you’ll know if you have achieved your goals

7. Check in frequently on how the process is going

8. Be open to changing the goals as you get further into the therapy process

How a Therapist Can Help You Meet Your Goals

From the beginning through the middle and until the end of individual therapy, at least one goal remains consistent: a solid therapeutic alliance. Research continues to show that the relationship between client and therapist is one of the most important factors in determining a successful outcome. As such, significant emphasis is placed on the efficacy of the relationship throughout the entire process of the work. 

When I facilitate individual therapy, I aim to:

• Strengthen your ability to think critically about your own mental processes 

• Hold space while you lean into the truth of all that you experience 

• Recognize, understand, and develop language for your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors 

• Expand the efficacy of your healing from active psychological pain or emotional wounds 

• Acknowledge the relationships and circumstances that most significantly influence your past and present functioning 

• Clarify expectations and form realistic ideas about moving forward

• Establish new behaviors that will complement the life you feel called to design for yourself 

• Develop the tools to eventually do all of this on your own 

Goals for Individual Therapy: Conclusion

When you genuinely participate in individual therapy, you can transform your perspective of yourself, others, and the world around you. Doing so often leads to a better quality of life and improved overall health outcomes.

If you’re interested in exploring online therapy, schedule your free 15-minute consultation.

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