The Surprising Benefits Of Just 10 Extra Minutes

Many of my clients have tried therapy in the past, and report that their sessions have always been fifty minutes long. This seems reasonable. It allows therapists time to regroup, pull up case notes, get ready for the next client and run their practices efficiently. Some, realizing the amount of time lost in getting started and winding things up at the end, choose to have ninety minute or even two hour sessions which can be exhausting.

The sweet spot for my clients has been one hour. With fifty minute sessions, the most effective working time is very limited. It takes ten to fifteen minutes to go over what has happened since the last session and what a client is experiencing currently. Another ten to fifteen minutes is spent safely bringing the session to a close, taking care of housekeeping such as such as homework, and booking next sessions. This means before even starting the deep healing work clients have come for, forty to sixty percent of the available time is already used up.

 

With sixty minute sessions using Emotional Freedom Techniques and related resources, once started, clients quite quickly bring themselves into a flow state. They are fully engaged, both consciously and subconsciously. Learning to apply the tools and techniques I’m coaching them to safely and self-compassionately use. Step by safe step, processing and healing the traumatic memories and limiting beliefs which have been holding them hostage.  Time goes by very quickly while in this mental state and it doesn’t feel like hard work. But the subconscious and conscious mind have been focusing intensely, and after an hour they’ve had enough.

That extra ten minutes is not just twenty percent extra time. It’s thirty five to fifty percent more “in the zone” time where the real collaboration between the conscious and subconscious occurs. Allowing for profound beneficial changes to take place quite rapidly.

 

 

Empowering clients to rapidly become free agents without the tyranny of old traumas and limiting beliefs, may not be the world’s best business model. But it wakes me up smiling and deeply grateful for my career, every day.

Yours in good mental and emotional health.