“I found the work interesting, but I didn’t take my patient’s near death experiences too seriously. I thought you died, you were out of pain and lived on in other people’s memories, and that was it. I was still resentful about us moving to Lubbock. Now looking back I see this move and my career shift was an intervention by God—he was preparing me for my experience.”

I don’t believe in endless talk or chatter; I believe in getting patients the help they need to identify their problems, focus on their goals, and find meaningful and effective ways to make changes so they reach those goals.

A reader suggested that it would be helpful to see an actual mental health treatment plan. In order for you to better get a feel for what a treatment plan is, and why every therapy patient should have one, I am going to recreate a treatment plan here over the course of several blog posts.

It is important to understand that though there is common ground between treatment plans—especially treatment plans for patients facing similar problems, there is no such thing as a standard treatment plan because each treatment plan must be individualized for each patient.

Also, it is useful to note that psychotherapists have many different—and valid—ways of assembling a written treatment plan. My plan is a 10 section plan and is based on a synthesis of existing plans. I use this plan format because it works well for me and for patients, and I train my staff to use this approach as well. It is the plan described in my book, Therapy Revolution. However, as long as treatment plans are written, contain the basic information I will list in these blog posts, and are referred to and updated frequently during the course of treatment, the format used is immaterial.