First psychotherapy assessment\apointment tomorrow

[crjs1]

Hey,

Just looking for a wee bit of advice, tomorrow morning I have a assessment to see if im suitable for psychotherapy, I have been waiting months for the appointment and am really nervous. Has anyone had one before? I have had a general mental health assessment before (going over history and current troubles..), do you think the psychotherapy one will be similar, im guessing it will?

Has anyone had much psychotherapy? Did you find it helpful? I know there are lots of various psychotherapies and not sure which one I will be getting, just wanting a general idea of what to expect.

I also have another worry.... When I was initially refered for psychotherapy, they wouldnt give me a assessment as I was self harming a lot, and they were worried starting psychotherepy could make my SI worse. So instead I have been seeing a counselor to gain control of my SI. Im just worried that they will not take me on for psychotherapy as I have not compleatly stopped SI, though it is a lot less and more controlled than it was...

Oh I should say the psychotherapy is to help me deal with things that happened in my past and intrusive memories\thoughts etc... rather than SI particularly.

Sorry to ramble on, im just getting really nervous and would hate to be told im not suitable for psychotherapy... I just want to kep my head sorted!! lol

[CagedBird]

I've been in psychotherapy for nearly 2yrs or over 2 years....i loose count. It isn't NHS funded but I'm sure it is very similar as it is charity based and therefore communicates with GPs, psychiatrists etc.

Anyway thinking back the first appt I had, it was quite general and kinda just gave me the space to talk about some of the issues that I was facing. I am pretty sure there were questions but it wasn't in a questionnaire form etc. I'm assuming it will be similar to your general mental health assessment too.

Personally therapy has been really helpful although incrediably hard. I think I've been really lucky because my therapist has stuck with me despite everything. I'm really truly surprised they wouldn't take you because you were SH'ing....I've no doubt therapy could escalate things if you and your therapist aren't communicating properly. But I SH and I talk openly with my therapist about it, and I'm fully aware it is my decision to hurt myself not hers....maybe be truthful but don't make that the main issue if you know that may prevent you from getting into therapy?

I hope it goes well. Post back and tell us how it went.

[Smile.Like.You.Mean.It.]

Hi,

I'm pretty sure I've had a psychotherapy assessment (does anyone else get confused with all the different names )

Anyway if its the same thing mine was with a consultant clinical psychologist. She spent 2 sessions essentially doing similiar assessments to what I've had from other professionals, however there was slightly more emphasis on what I thought was wrong, what I thought would make me better which did flummox me a bit.

Anyway that was in November and I got signed up to 20 'sessions', but I don't really know what sort of therapy it is - I don't think she called it a name specifically like CBT.

So far I've found it not to be great, but the sessions have been quite disrupted due to illness/my university holidays etc so I'm not sure whether that's because I'm still getting into the swing of how it works. I get given 'homework' to do each week, which I always find quite hard to complete.

Don't let this put you off though...I'm just trying to get across my early experiences of it.

In terms of your other questions, I can't help with the SI aspect as I haven't experienced that, although I did have a particularly low patch of depression about 3 weeks in, which involved the doctor getting the crisis team out to me, and as that went on the record the psychologist knew that this had happened at the next appointment. She asked me if I wanted to continue, saying that they do challenge lots of thoughts/behaviours etc and if I was in a particularly low spot this could make things even worse, however she gave me the choice and as I had waited almost a year to get onto the treatment, I thought I'd better make a longer go of it!

It would be interesting to hear from anyone slightly further down the road on this sort of thing?

Hope this has helped in any way, let me know how it goes! Good luck

[crjs1]

Hey, Thanks for the reply's

It went well, quite nerve wracking and stressfull but the Dr I saw was really nice. It was very much like CadgedBird said, no formal questionares etc, I was very much given the space to talk about my past and difficulties etc. Got another one or two of these assessment sessions then they will decide what kind of psycotherapy I would benefit from if any at all. All in all a positive experience.