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A question I am sometimes asked in counselling is “how long will counselling take?”
As a counsellor (see article: “How I work as a Counsellor”) I offer two main types of contract when I meet a client for an assessment. These are Open Ended counselling and Short-term “focussed” counselling. This article summarises both methods of working.
Short-term “focussed” Counselling.
In short-term focussed counselling, the client and I agree a set number of sessions (anything between four or twelve) and we agree a specific focus for the work (i.e. one specific element in the client’s life). The focus must be reasonable to work with within the time constraints. We then meet weekly focussing in on the agreed topic until the number of sessions is complete.
It is not usual for the number of sessions to be altered once we have begun – although there are always exceptions which we can talk about during the therapy.
One benefit of short-term counselling is that the number of sessions and the focus is agreed upon at the very beginning … even though it can be tough work focussing upon a problem and even six sessions can fly by very quickly.
One disadvantage of short-term counselling is that it doesn’t afford any time to work upon matters that are related (or very close to) the focus in any depth.
Short-term counselling is not suitable for every situation and, ethically, if I think that such work is not suitable for a client I will discuss it with the client before offering such a counselling contract.
See also my post on Short-term, brief counselling.
Open Ended Counselling.
In open ended counselling, the client and I meet weekly for enough sessions to address the focus sufficiently - allowing the therapy to develop in its own time. Both client and I keep an eye on what we discussed in the first session (the assessment) and at some point during the therapy either the client, or I, or both of us will begin to talk about if the counselling work has been completed sufficiently to warrant setting an end date (or a set number of sessions in which to complete and say goodbye).
Ethically, I would not let open ended counselling continue unlimited, forever. And having an unspecified number of sessions can be a valuable container for the client as he/she addresses his/her concerns and makes changes to his/her life before we both agree that the focus of the counselling work has been addressed and worked through – and now the work should come to an end.
In Summary.
Sometimes a client may ask “how long will this take” and estimating a set number of counselling sessions to address fully a problem is more of an art than a science … if not impossible (and unethical) in some cases.
Brief therapy offers a set number of sessions, but the focus is not suitable for everyone’s tastes. Open ended counselling offers an unlimited number of sessions, which allows for the focus of the therapy to be addressed in its own time, until both client and counsellor agree that the focus has been sufficiently worked through.
Some personal matters cannot be adequately addressed by brief/focussed therapy because the client is not in a safe enough place to work in such a focussed manner (for example – past trauma such as an attack, rape or other forms of abuse).
As a BACP accredited counsellor working with the BACP Ethical Framework – my clients and I discuss various forms of therapy before beginning the work – finding the right counselling treatment for the client’s presenting issues.
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