Nita Byrne, LCSW

One of the goals of the first few sessions you'll have with a therapist is to clarify your needs. As you hear yourself talk about what's bothering you, you'll often become clearer about what is necessary. Sometimes when the problem is limited in scope a few sessions are all that is required to clear things up. Other times, though, you and your therapist may decide that more intensive work would be beneficial.

Yes, confidentiality is a cornerstone of psychotherapy. You must be able to reveal your thoughts and feelings to your therapist without fear. Nonetheless, certain legal restrictions may limit your confidentiality. These concerns are all addressed verbally during our first session and additional information may be reviewed in the client-therapist agreement form.

During the process of speaking your problems to a nonjudgmental person, putting your concerns into words, and getting a different point of view from your therapist, something happens. You begin to feel better about yourself and to see yourself and your problems in a different way. You begin to feel more hopeful.

It's true that symptoms of anxiety and depression occur in the brain, and that medication can sometimes be quite useful at that level. But medication alone will not transform the way we think about ourselves and those we care about. To address those issues, which frequently stem from loss or disruptions in our dealings with life's setbacks, we often need the help of another person who will help us explore the feelings that affect our ability to be happy. Indeed, research shows that for severe depression, best results are achieved with a combination of medication and psychotherapy.

Individual sessions are $90 and couples are $100. I am an in-network provider for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Magellan, and Cigna.