Month: September 2025

The idea of finding “the right therapist” is a daunting one, but there are a few specific factors to focus on to help guide your choice.  Also, the truth is that there are many therapists who can help you reach your goals, you don’t need the “perfect therapist.”  The idea of a “perfect therapist” is likely a distraction and attempt to control that will just cost you time in the process of getting into good therapy.

One of the most important factors to consider when choosing a therapist is fit.  The fit between therapist and client is one of the strongest predictors of whether therapy will be helpful. In fact, decades of research show that the therapeutic alliance, which is the quality of the relationship and shared goals between therapist and client, accounts for more of the positive outcomes in therapy than the specific technique alone.  Again, this is not about perfectionism.  “Fit” generally means that you feel mostly confident that your therapist both understands your struggles and has a roadmap to help.  Personalities between therapist and client don’t have to be perfectly in sync, but it’s more important that there is mutual respect and appreciation.

Finding The Right Therapist: Where To Start 

The therapist’s expertise still matters, and is the easiest place to start your search. Especially if you are struggling with anxiety, OCD, trauma, ADHD, or other specific challenges, you’ll want someone who not only “gets you” but also knows the evidence-based strategies that actually work. The best way to learn about what a therapist specializes in is to read their bio.  Therapists typically discuss training and experience background, as well as the type of problems they work best with. 

Why Expertise Still Matters

The relationship is the foundation—but the tools matter too. Certain presenting conditions have been shown to respond best to structured, evidence-based treatments:

• OCD: Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) has decades of data showing effectiveness.
• PTSD/Trauma: Therapies like Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure (PE), and EMDR are gold standards.
• ADHD: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for adults with ADHD can improve organization, emotion regulation, and follow-through.
• Depression & Anxiety Disorders: Both CBT and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) have extensive research support.

So, while the warmth of your therapist matters, choosing someone trained in approaches that work for your specific difficulties increases your chances of meaningful change.

What to Ask When Looking for a Therapist:

• What is your approach to therapy with my concern? Do you use evidence-based therapies for my concern?
• How do you measure progress in treatment?
• What does a typical session look like with you?

These questions give you a sense of whether your therapist will be both approachable and effective.

Our Approach at Dallas CBT

At Dallas CBT, we specialize in evidence-based therapies for anxiety disorders, OCD, depression, trauma, ADHD, and related challenges. Each of our clinicians brings expertise in CBT and ACT frameworks, with additional training in ERP, EMDR, and parent-focused interventions.

Our Practice Administrator’s #1 job is to match our clients with the therapist on our team who will be the best fit.  We do this based on a very thorough understanding of each of our therapists, their expertise, and the clients they tend to work best with.

What makes our practice a good fit:

• Personalized fit: We match clients with therapists based on presenting concerns and style.
• Focus on skills + insight: We believe therapy is most effective when it combines learning practical strategies with deeper self-understanding.
• Breadth of services: We work with children, teens, adults, and families—often bringing in parents or partners when appropriate.
• Community-minded: If we’re not the best fit, we’ll help you find someone who is.

Who Would Be a Good Fit at Dallas CBT?

• Adults and children with anxiety, OCD, depression, ADHD, or trauma symptoms.
• Parents seeking help with child or adolescent struggles.
• Professionals or students facing stress, burnout, or performance anxiety.
• Anyone looking for a therapist who combines compassion with a clear, evidence-based plan

The right therapist is someone you trust, who uses tools that work, and who helps you take steps toward the life you want. If you’re searching for a Dallas therapist or for online therapy in Texas and resonate with our approach, we’d be glad to walk alongside you.

References

Flückiger, C., Del Re, A. C., Wampold, B. E., & Horvath, A. O. (2020). The alliance in adult psychotherapy: A meta-analytic synthesis. Psychotherapy, 57(4), 450–464. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000313

Norcross, J. C., & Lambert, M. J. (2019). Psychotherapy relationships that work III. Psychotherapy, 56(4), 421–426. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000289

 

One of the more common questions we get from potential new clients is some version of “How long will this take?” It’s a reasonable question; people want to feel better soon, and therapy is an investment in time and resources. Thankfully, relief begins to happen quickly in therapy, though there is work to do to make sure those gains solidify.  Here’s an overview of the research on two of the main forms of therapy we practice at Dallas CBT: CBT and ACT.

What the Evidence Tells Us About CBT

Most research suggests that an appropriate “dose” of treatment is around 20 sessions, spread out over a several month period. Clients often experience some relief in the first 3 sessions or so as they name their struggles and learn more about how their symptoms are created or maintained After about 6 to 10 sessions, clients show more measurable decreases in symptoms and improvements in functioning as they are becoming more consistent with their therapy skills. Once we get into the 12 to 20 session range, research shows medium to large effect sizes across a host of disorders. At this latter stage in treatment clients are solidifying their gains and preparing to manage symptoms on their own. This leads to robust and sustained treatment gains well after treatment is discontinued.

Why Progress Speeds Up or Slows Down

Several factors influence the pace of improvement:

• Severity and complexity: Though it makes intuitive sense, research indicates that less severe and complex symptoms tend to respond more swiftly to treatment, while more severe and complex symptoms require more time and consistent work, even beyond 20 sessions
• Client engagement & Skills Practice: Therapy can help lead the proverbial horse to water, but it cannot make it drink. Consistently, the biggest predictor of treatment gains is how consistently the client engages in their therapy work between sessions.
• Therapeutic alliance: The quality of the relationship between therapist and client consistently predicts outcomes in treatment.
• Life context: Life stressors rarely stop and wait for us to engage in treatment, and often directly contribute to more of whatever it is we’re struggling with. This doesn’t mean treatment gains are unreachable while going through major life stressors, but they are often slow it down.

What About ACT?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of CBT that isn’t focused on symptom reduction alone—it’s about increasing psychological flexibility and taking valued action despite symptoms you’re experiencing. Research shows ACT to be effective across many disorders, with over 1,300 RCTs and multiple meta-analyses affirming its efficacy.

In clinical practice, clients often observe early shifts in the first few weeks of treatment—like greater openness to anxiety or a small return to meaningful activity. That said, deeper shifts—like living with less experiential avoidance—often become clearer over 8 to 16 sessions, depending on individual context. Clients often experience progress in waves, with large shifts in their experience of their symptoms coming after weeks of consistent practice.

Therapy is a Process

Therapy isn’t a quick fix—but CBT and ACT are not open-ended guesswork. Evidence shows that structured treatments like CBT and ACT can yield lasting change and that the effort put in predicts the outcome. CBT delivers tangible tools; ACT fosters flexible living in the face of anxiety. When paired with a supportive therapist, real relief isn’t just hoped for—it’s within reach.

If you are ready to give therapy a try with a compassionate specialist in anxiety, the therapists at Dallas CBT would be honored to be on this journey with you. Reach out to our office to paired with the therapist who is the best fit for you.

 

If you are considering therapy for anxiety for the first time, you might wonder: What do people actually do in there? It’s a fair question. Therapy can feel mysterious—one that promises relief, but leaves you unsure about what you’d be signing up for.

We know that for many of us with anxiety, it helps to have a good idea about what we’re getting into before we start. Here, we’re going to give you a general idea about what therapy at Dallas CBT often looks like.

When you sit down for therapy (whether that’s on a sofa in the therapy room or over video), the goal isn’t just to “talk about feelings.” Evidence-based approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) use structured, practical tools to help you understand your anxiety, change your relationship with it, and gradually reclaim your life.

Here’s What A Therapy Session For Anxiety Looks Like:

1. Clarifying the Map.

Early sessions usually focus on assessment and goal setting. Together, you and your therapist explore:

What situations trigger your anxiety.

How your body, thoughts, and behaviors respond.

What you’ve tried so far, and what hasn’t worked.

Think of this as building a “map” of your anxiety patterns. A clear map makes it easier to know where to intervene.

2. Learning the Tools.

CBT and ACT are both skills-based therapies—that means you’ll learn strategies to practice between sessions. For example:

CBT techniques might help you notice and test unhelpful thoughts. Instead of automatically believing, “If I speak up in the meeting, I’ll embarrass myself,” you learn to notice thoughts as they arise and ask: What’s the actual evidence? What else might happen?

ACT strategies focus less on changing thoughts and more on changing your relationship with them. You might practice “defusion”—noticing an anxious thought (“I’ll mess this up”) and labeling it simply as “a thought,” not a prophecy.

Both approaches also emphasize values: What matters to you enough that it’s worth facing anxiety to pursue?

3. Exposure Work (The Scary but Effective Part)

One of the most powerful tools for anxiety is exposure therapy, a CBT technique that’s often woven into ACT values work. Here’s how it works:

You and your local therapist identify anxiety-provoking situations that you may be avoiding. These can be situations that you’d really like to be able to do in your life, or simply situations where your avoidance of them is keeping anxiety alive. Examples are anything from making a phone call to riding in an elevator to speaking up for yourself.

Instead of avoiding those situations (which strengthens anxiety), you practice approaching them in gradual, manageable steps. Many times, we do this together in the therapy session.

Over time, your nervous system learns a new lesson: “I can handle this. Anxiety comes, and anxiety goes.”

Exposure isn’t about throwing you into the deep end. It’s a collaborative, carefully paced process that builds confidence.

4. Practicing in Session.

Therapy sessions aren’t just talking about anxiety—they often involve practicing skills right there in the room. That might look like:

Doing a brief mindfulness exercise to observe anxious sensations.

Role-playing a feared conversation.

Watching your own worry thoughts pass by like leaves on a stream.

This in-session practice helps bridge the gap between theory and real life.

5. Taking It Outside.

Anxiety therapy is most effective when what happens in session extends into your daily life. You’ll likely leave with homework—small, structured experiments to test new ways of responding to anxiety.

For example, if you’ve been avoiding driving, your homework might be to sit in the car for five minutes.

If you’re stuck in worry cycles, your assignment might be to schedule a daily 10-minute “worry time” and practice redirecting your attention the rest of the day.

Therapy is less about instant relief and more about building resilience through repeated practice.

6. Tracking Progress.

Along the way, you and your therapist will check in: Are symptoms decreasing? Are you living closer to your values? Are you gaining confidence in facing feared situations?

Progress is rarely linear—there are usually spikes and setbacks—but the overall trajectory tends toward greater freedom and flexibility.

The Bottom Line

A therapy session is a safe and supportive space where you and the therapist are on the same team. It’s an active, collaborative process: mapping patterns, learning tools, facing fears, and practicing new ways of relating to anxious thoughts and sensations.

CBT and ACT give you skills to change unhelpful thinking patterns and flexibility to live with anxiety without being ruled by it. Exposure helps you retrain your nervous system to stop running from fear.

Put simply: therapy isn’t just about talking—it’s about doing. And what you do in session can ripple into how you live your life outside it.

If you are ready to give therapy a try with a compassionate specialist in anxiety, the therapists at Dallas CBT would be honored to be on this journey with you. Reach out to our office to paired with the therapist who is the best fit for you.