Therapy Is Cool! Top 3 Benefits Of Therapy
When I first began therapy, I felt a lot like Humpty Dumpty in this picture. Nervous, unsure what the experience would be like. Turns out, therapy has changed my life in so many ways. Therapy has challenged me. Therapy has given me tools to better manage the many obstacles of life. But above all therapy has improved my mental health.
It isn’t like our parent’s generation, where therapy was stigmatized. You were either classified as a loon or social outcast for even considering going to therapy. It hasn’t been until recent years, especially after Covid-19, that therapy intervention became cool! Now days, people talk about therapy as casually as if they are going to the market. As they should!
Just as you would take your car in for its yearly tune up, the same applies to your mental health. Here are my top 3 benefits of therapy.
Therapy Can Make You Happier
Have you ever tried explaining to friends or family your struggles only to be met with pre-conceived judgment, unsolicited advice, and or complete dismissal? Not to say talking to family and friends doesn’t make you feel better. But the majority of the time people don’t know what to say to make you feel better. We are a self-absorbed society, always on the go. We don’t have the attention span or energy to take on everyone’s problems. That’s okay. Not everyone can meet you and hold you in that space. A licensed therapist can!
Imagine an unbiased person who gives you their undivided attention with absolutely zero judgment. They are simply there for you. The best part is everything you tell them is client, patient patient-protected (wink). The therapist is there for the sole purpose of listening. They aren’t there to solve your crisis. They are not there to tell you “just get over it, you have so much to be grateful for.” Sometimes simply venting and feeling truly heard makes you feel better.
2. Therapy Provides Life-Long Coping Skills
Many people think therapy is much like our friend Humpty Dumpty above laying down on a fainting couch spilling our guts to a stranger only to be told “i’m sorry, we are out of time.” Now, yes, therapy sessions are timed but the reality is we have this image of what therapy is in our heads. I can assure you therapy is anything but that. I think I have laid down one time during a therapy session. The majority of the time I either sit down in person or have a telehealth session from the comfort of my own home. My point is therapy is going to look different for everyone. The experience will vary on your own evel of comfort. A great therapist will meet you in whatever session that looks like for you.
Over a period of time, the therapist will analyze your behavior and how you handle life situations, especially the really stressful ones. Over time, they will provide you with feedback on how to cope and hopefully provide you with life-long coping skills. After all, a therapist can’t always be there to hold your hand.
3. Therapy Improves Quality of Life
Have you ever heard of the ripple effect? Imagine throwing a pebble into a lake and picture the ripples that appear from that one rock. Therapy is much like that. Over time, therapy improves the quality of life. I know for me, I felt more prepared. I started to gain confidence in any unexpected challenges thrown my way. I wasn’t afraid of the unknown. I was also able to be a better wife, sister, auntie, and daughter. See those ripples forming?
Heck! I even got better sleep. With more rest, came better energy and focus.
Therapy truly improved my quality of life.
I think the benefits of therapy outweigh the negatives.
I believe what you take into therapy is ultimately what you gain from it. If you go into therapy dishonest or genuinely disinterested you won’t get much out of the process. I think today many people do not want to take the time to self-reflect and work on themselves. It’s easier to be distracted on the phone, spend countless hours on social media, or binge-watch shows. It’s too hard to sit in reflective silence and get in touch with how you feel.
I never understand how people spend hours looking at social media only to feel disappointed where their life is. Wake up! Social media is not real. It’s a filtered view of what people want you to see. The “perfect” view. That isn’t life. Life is imperfect.
Before I write off on a tangent, I encourage you, if you are that person who spends hours looking at social media, to redirect that energy towards yourself Apply that same amount of time towards one therapy session. Participating in therapy doesn’t mean anything has to be necessarily wrong. Therapy is there as a tool to check in with yourself. Sometimes, it’s nice to be validated not just through the amount of thumb likes and hearts on social media.
