Therapy Trajectory

With therapy, progress can be like hiking.

The path is winding, with switchbacks, and sometimes it can feel like you are going backward, but you are on the path to your destination rather than where you began. Recognizing the associated likely timeline is important to maintain perspective and motivation. Minimal treatment length expectations will be discussed in your orientation session based on your screening assessment, which usually is a minimum of 6 to 8 months. This is the amount of time it takes to get through a usual coursework of skills training.

Hiking path down to beach.

For exposure therapy and EMDR, this is sometimes shorter, e.g., 20 sessions. Clients sometimes request to accelerate session frequency given circumstances, such as college departure, leave from school, or clinical severity. Achieving lasting progress is a marathon, not a sprint. And at the same time, it does not have to be endless. For example, although extensive, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), including radically open (RO) DBT, is, by design, time-limited. Likewise, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) offers specific structured, time-limited protocols. And we are committed to you on this journey.

Cairn at beach

“Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.”


- Alice Mackenzie Swaim

Cairn in pond with flower blossoming in the middle.