Switching Medications: Need Advice

a bit of background, I've been singing or prescribing psychiatrist for the last few years, but she did not offer any kind of therapy or coping skills, and so today I had my first appointment with this new place that does therapy and medications. They decided that they're going to cut my venlafaxine and escitalopram in half for 3 days, And then I'm supposed to stop both of those and start taking abilify and remeron. anyone have any experiences with these two new medications? And has anyone made a switch like this before? just wondering what I might can expect because I've heard that the withdrawal symptoms for cutting back on Lexapro are kind of horrible. but I haven't heard anything about the withdrawal symptoms or cutting back on effexor. I also really don't know anything about the new ones, I think I've heard the name abilify a few times, but I never even knew what it treated, and I've never heard of remeron.