by Liz Strong and Tara Harvill
Sometimes clients arrive for counseling with the hope of “feeling better” or wanting “things to be different," but articulating a specific goal may seem more difficult. As a collaborative effort with your therapist, treatment planning is a way of clarifying expectations and identifying barriers to growth and fruition.
At the White Picket Fence Counseling Center, we use a self-care treatment plan with our clients as a way to keep track of what led you to therapy, as well as the other issues that surface throughout your sessions.
Often, when we begin to discuss treatment plans with clients, they become apprehensive upon hearing words and phrases such as “interventions” and “target date.” If you have a similar reaction, rest assured—treatment plans are actually a very helpful tool.
By defining current feelings, situations, and relationships and targeting dreams, aspirations, values, and ideals, treatment planning serves as a GPS for both client and therapist. A self-care treatment plan provides a place to start and a route along which to proceed with purpose. It empowers clients to take an active role in the therapeutic process and demystifies the role of the therapist and the course of counseling.
Together, you establish your goals and how you would like to try to meet them. These goals are then broken down into more manageable steps, complete with time frames. This written plan can also help to keep sessions on track, enabling you to follow your progress.
So what happens if you discover something new along the way or change your mind about what’s right for you? Treatment plans remain flexible and, by design, require revisiting and updating periodically for this very reason. Just as a GPS accommodates new destinations or detours along the way, treatment plans can be modified and adjusted when necessary to align with the client’s evolving needs.
In our experience, one of the best aspects of the treatment plan is how encouraging it is to revisit it and find that you have met many of the goals you established. So ask your therapist about treatment planning.Without a designated destination, how will you know when you have arrived?