Your Voice Matters

Welcome to Reaching Minds Mini Series: How to Therapy!

This episode discusses the power in advocating for your mental health treatment. The purpose of this episode is to empower and educate in order to receive the best out of your treatment. Join the discussion through sending a message via Instagram @reachingminds. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Hello, hello, welcome, welcome, welcome back. We at number three, mini series number three. I am so glad that you are here joining in, tuning in from wherever you are. Um, I appreciate just the support so far. I hope that um this information has been helpful and useful for you so far. Hopefully, you've taken advantage um of just how to search for your therapist. Hopefully, you've been inspired on you know, continuing with the journey and then um even just looking into the resources. Um, I hope that like really just encouraged you so far. So, like we always do, we're gonna dive in, you know, we're not gonna waste no time. Um, again, if you don't know who I am, my name is Brianna Williams MS. Um, I um shared a little bit about myself in the first episode. So if you have not, like please do so. Um go check it out. I mean, I think it was a pretty powerful episode. Um, but I would be biased. So uh definitely um if you have any questions or anything that came up for you in the past, like two um episodes, um, or just any questions you have in general when it comes to like therapy in the process um and all these different things, or maybe you have a story to share that um some an experience that happened in therapy that you kind of just want some clarity on, um, or things like that. Definitely DM me, shoot me a message in one of the links um in on our podcast bio, you know, reach out to me. I would love to hear, you know, the things that you're you're you're experiencing and going through, any questions like definitely I want to be a part of your journey, so um, so yeah, axe away, axe away. No question is dumb, it's a dumb question. That's what they always told me in school. So, but anyway, let's dive in for real this time. We're at episode three, and today we're gonna be talking about um client voice. Client voice. Um, I've been talking to um a couple people, well, a few people these days, and you know, just just regular conversation, and you know, what seems to be coming up is that people don't really know what they are supposed to be like, I guess, like looking for in therapy, what um kind of rights that they have. People don't know um just how to advocate for themselves or if it's even possible to advocate for for their services. Um, people kind of just follow the lead of of the therapist, um, of other or of the professional that's in front of them. Um, and so definitely I wanted to have this conversation because it is definitely um beneficial for yourself as well as the therapist if you really exercise your voice and you really advocate for your treatment. Um, and so we're going to dive into that. We're gonna dive into that today and really just think about like what what kind of what kind of access do we have? What what kind of power do we have? Like what what do we need to be thinking about and things like that? And I want you to know, I want to start off with this that you might not know what you want, um, in general, like you might not know exactly what you want, but you're finding out what you don't want, and so that's important to communicate that because oftentimes we want to wait until we know exactly what we want in order to communicate something, but you don't have to wait until that. You can you can always voice what you don't like in a session or what you don't want um within your treatment. That is okay. So I want you I want to give you a couple questions to ask yourself. Um the first question is is my therapist meeting my needs? So remember how we talked about in the previous um episode, we talked about um really just like thinking about your goals. What did you come to therapy for? What were some things that you wanted to work on? Um, whether that was really just thinking about depression, really thinking about working through your anxiety or working through um some of the things that um some of the past hurts and things that um or work stress or things that may be affecting you currently. Um you want to really ask yourself are we working towards those goals? Is that still happening? Is that still a thing? Or did we kind of go off the rails? So really ask yourself that. Think about you know think about this. Think about your treatment, and then ask yourself is their approach beneficial to my treatment? And so again, like in the last episode, we kind of talked a little bit about um there's different modalities and techniques that um therapists use. So one of them is is cognitive behavioral therapy, um, there is um person-centered, there is dbt, um, all these different things. There's EMDR. Um, and so really like you can ask this question even to your therapist, like, hey, what modality are you using? Um, and even if, and even sometimes their um modalities are in their bios as well. So you can also look into see if you know, are they working on that? Or sometimes they might, you know, throw in some different new tools and things like that that they may not um use on a regular. And so definitely you can ask them, hey, what what treatment style are you using with me? What what um modality are you using? What technique are you using? So that way you could kind of do your research and see if that fits for you. Um, and it may fit for some for some things that you have going on, right? It may work just like trauma cbt, right? It it works for when you're going through experiencing grief or trying to address um uh an issue that happened uh years ago, or you know, some or works with some PTSD that you experienced, but it might not work for you know current work stress or it might not work for you know some of the the lower end issues that you may be having, and that's okay. So definitely you want to be able to um voice that and say, hey, like I don't think this approach is working for me. Hey, I think we should even try a different modality. Do you know this? I've been researching this technique, I think it'll be beneficial for me. You know, you can bring techniques to your clinicians, and they um will can, you know, if they if if they have the tools, they can be able to um assist you in those techniques that you feel like is beneficial for you, or even point you in the right direction, and that's okay too. That is totally okay too. If they say, you know what, I do not have the the the tools or the resources to to meet that need, but I know X, Y, and Z that can, or I can direct you here, or we can do something in conjunction with another clinician, and so that way you can have the treatment that you need, and that's okay. So definitely advocate for yourself, know what the modalities and the techniques that your therapist is using, and check out some other ones, don't be afraid to bring them to session. And then the last question is an important question. Um, is do I feel safe in session? And what I mean by that is do I feel like I can really talk to my therapist and express to them all of the different things going on, right? Do I feel like I um can share certain things? Do I feel comfortable? And it goes back to um what we talked about before with having that comfortability with your therapist, um, and really uh them knowing or being um culturally competent in some of the things that you're facing. Um and so a lot of times like we find ourselves pulling back some of the things or withholding some information because we don't feel like our therapists will get it, or um, we'll have to explain too much, or we don't feel that they will um understand, or they may pass a judgment, or things like that. And so this is important when you start to feel this type of way. It doesn't necessarily mean that you need to get a new therapist, right? It doesn't necessarily mean that, okay, I gotta jump ship. Um, but it can be a conversation, it could definitely be a conversation like, hey, I have this thing I really want to express with you. Um, but I'm not sure how you know you'll be able to handle it or how you'll you will view me. And this will help, you know, open that that floor of uncomfortability and allow both of you guys to address, you know, the elephant in a room, whether it's because of the race or it's because of um financial differences and things like that, um, and different lifestyles or religious purposes, um, definitely being able to voice that and have your therapist say, no, this is a safe, safe space, I'm not judging you, and things like that, um, to be able to break that ice for you to be able to share. So you want to ask yourself these questions. And then when you ask yourself these questions, like feel free to take you know some of the things that you've been thinking about, take them to your therapist, take them to your professional so that way they can know how to best serve you. Um, they'll know how and and what you need in order to you know to benefit from the services. You know, you don't want to have time wasted. You don't want to just come just to come. And again, remember we talked about, you know, most of the time we're paying for this, we're paying for this service, whether it's you know, the whole thing through self-pay or whether it's a co-pay because of insurance. A lot of times we're paying for it, and even if we're not paying for it financially, we're paying for it with time, we're paying for it, you know, with things coming up and and emotionally paying for it. So you want to make sure like you're really um staying up on your investment because it is important, um, it's very important. So, what do I mean by taking them to your therapist? Um, definitely um kind of the the things that I was saying, like, you know, when it comes to like modality, like being open, hey, what what are you using on me? What technique is this? Explain this to me a little bit. Um, you know, having that psychoeducation, um, being able to be in a space where you know what you're getting. Um and then also being real about when it's something that you don't like. Um, I tell my clients all the time, I'm like, hey, if I'm doing something and you're like, I don't think this is working for me, I tell them, tell me straight up, because this is important, because um I'm only gonna keep doing what what what I think is gonna be working. And so if you're not saying anything, I'ma just feel like, oh, okay, well, I guess it's good. I guess they're they're receiving it and things like that, unless like you know, your your body language tells different as well. But definitely let them know, like, hey, I don't think this is working for me, or maybe they might reflect something that is totally wrong. You might say something and you might say a story, um, and they might say, Yeah, you don't like your mom, and you're like, wait, no, that's not what I meant. You can say that instead of taking that and say, like, yeah, of course, like I guess I don't, like, you don't have to take that, but you can definitely provide clarity and understanding because we don't always get it right, we don't always get it right, and that's okay. And so, definitely like feeling feeling like you have that voice, feeling like you're able to say, you know, what you need to say in order to get the most out of your treatment, and again, having the honest conversation of what will help you in your journey um as you're healing, you know, maybe they they ramble too much, maybe they are too silent, maybe um maybe they have that balance, but you're like, no, I want more silence, or I want you to talk more, or I need you to ask me questions, um, open-ended questions, or I'm going to just sit here, or I'm going to just have those close-ended questions. I'm going to answer just closed-ended, or I'm going to be very short. You know, you can say what you need in that moment, um, until you are comfortable enough to be able to just to just share freely. And so definitely, like, and update them on the journey. During the journey, update your your therapist on, you know, maybe you need you you don't need as many questions anymore. Maybe you don't need as many silences anymore. Um and so that that can always change throughout the journey of your your therapy journey. So definitely like make sure you're you're continually asking yourself these questions and staying in tune with just what you need treatment-wise. And so, last thing, I want to leave you with some things to remember. Um, oftentimes we don't know this, oftentimes we don't feel like um you know these things apply to us, but I definitely want to, you know, just remind you that your therapist works for you. Your therapist works for you. And I say that to say um that you have control of your treatment. It's about you. It's about you, it's not about their feelings, it's not about their expertise, it's not about what they are best comfortable with. Um it's it's not about them. But your treatment is about you, and you have a say into how you want um your treatment to go. You have a say and say into that. And I also want you to remember that the professional, the therapist, you know, whatever you want to call them, um, they don't know what you need until you say something. They can't read minds. Even though we work with the mind, we can't read them. Um we can make assumptions, we can guess. Um but again, like we can come up, come up short because we don't really know. So don't be afraid to say what you need to say. Don't be afraid to advocate for yourself. Um don't be afraid to suggest some some some tips, um, to give feedback, um, to give constructive criticism. Don't be afraid to do that. Because it helps um it helps the professional grow as well, it it helps you grow. It helps you it helps you get the the treatment that you need. And never um never be discouraged if you are pointed in a different direction with your therapist. It doesn't mean that they gave up on you. It means that they care about your treatment so much that they have they know that they have taken you to the end of where they're gonna get to. And that's okay. And that's okay. So definitely don't get discouraged with change, even if you feel like you have to make a change in changing your therapist. Trust me, we don't take it to heart. We don't. We know it's not personal, but you have to do what is best for you. So even when you're asking yourself these questions and you reach a point where you find yourself not getting the best out of your treatment, um, and you're like, listen, I think I need to make a change. Even though change is scary, change is hard, change sucks to have to get to know someone else again and you know go through some parts of your story um and address some things, um, it's necessary. It is totally necessary, and you'll be able to find what you need. And so definitely if you're asking yourself these questions and things are coming up short, and you advocate for your treatment, and you ask your therapist these questions, and you you know, uh find out what you're looking for, or even address the things that that that that you don't want and things are still not changing, or you know, your need is still not being met. It's okay uh to change therapists if you can. Okay, so I hope this was beneficial for you. I hope you feel um empowered to to exercise your voice, empowered to um just continue the journey of of healing, of mental health, of mental health healing. And so again, if you have any questions, please feel free to DM me. Please feel free to um send me a message, um, so that way we can we can chat it up and you know we can have those things addressed, um, whether it be on this platform, whether it be personally, whatever is is conducive. Um, but I thank you for joining in. I thank you for tuning in. Um, again, my name is Brianna Williams MS. Follow me on Reach Your Minds. Um, like share all the things with this uh mini series, and I hope you guys um continue healing. All right, bye, I'm gonna get it.