{
  "id": "why-does-progress-feel-slower-between-sessions",
  "question": "Why does progress feel slower between sessions?",
  "pillar": "the-wait",
  "page": "https://www.asendar.com/gap/q/why-does-progress-feel-slower-between-sessions",
  "markdown": "https://www.asendar.com/gap/q/why-does-progress-feel-slower-between-sessions.md",
  "published": "2026-08-29",
  "gapNumber": "1,104 people across 16 treatment studies",
  "shortAnswer": "Often because change in therapy is not smooth. It tends to come in jumps, not a steady climb. A large review found that a big share of a person's total improvement can arrive in a single stretch between two sessions. So the flat weeks can feel like nothing, even when the overall path is upward.",
  "keyFinding": "Idan Aderka, Angela Nickerson, Hans Jakob Bøe, and Stefan Hofmann pooled 16 studies covering 1,104 people who were in psychological treatment for depression or an anxiety disorder. They focused on a pattern called a sudden gain, which is a large drop in symptoms across a single gap between two sessions. In the original work that named the pattern, these jumps averaged about a quarter of a person's symptoms and made up roughly half of their total improvement, and this review set out to test how much that held across many studies at once. People who had a sudden gain ended treatment in a better place than people who did not, with a moderate effect size of 0.62, and they were still doing better at follow-up, with an effect size of 0.56. The plain read of the numbers is that a lot of real change does not trickle in evenly. It lands in bursts, and long flat stretches sit in between.",
  "study": {
    "authors": "Aderka, I. M., Nickerson, A., Bøe, H. J., and Hofmann, S. G.",
    "year": "2012",
    "title": "Sudden gains during psychological treatments of anxiety and depression: A meta-analysis",
    "journal": "Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology",
    "citation": "Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, volume 80, pages 93 to 101",
    "doi": "10.1037/a0026455",
    "url": "https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026455"
  },
  "sources": [
    "Aderka, I. M., Nickerson, A., Bøe, H. J., & Hofmann, S. G. (2012). Sudden gains during psychological treatments of anxiety and depression: A meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 80(1), 93-101. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026455"
  ]
}