What to Expect from Therapy
The goals you want to work on and how you will work to accomplish these goals are your treatment plan. Your therapist will review progress on these goals with you periodically throughout therapy. You can always adjust or change goals as you would like by talking with your therapist.
In therapy, the therapist will listen to you and be able to be non-judgmental and objective, since unlike family and friends, they are not directly impacted by your problem(s). They will help you understand yourself and problem(s) better to be able to deal with things differently. The therapist may teach you about what you are dealing with and suggest some tools or strategies that might be helpful, but they will not tell you what to do. They will help you to find your own solutions that fit with your own value system.
There is usually no specific time frame for therapy because everyone is different. You can always ask your therapist how long they think the therapy will last, but this can change based on what you need. Essentially, therapy is over once you have accomplished your goals.