9 Ways You Can Benefit from Therapy
If you’re here, you may be wondering if therapy is right for you. You might have considered counseling before, know someone who sees a therapist or maybe you’ve heard about it in mainstream media and you’re curious. Whatever the reason is, the purpose of this post is to outline 9 different potential benefits of therapy.
In mainstream media, counseling is sometimes portrayed as only for individuals who have long-standing mental-illness or related symptoms and/or for substance use issues. While counseling is very beneficial for individuals with mental illness and/or substance use issues, it is also invaluable for people who are needing support, guidance, problem-solving or an objective sounding-board for situations or issues that are arising in the here - and - now. Therapy can also be used to explore childhood experiences and patterns that pop up over time (wanted or unwanted), improve relationships, and to increase self-awareness that leads to making wanted and lasting change.
Let’s jump in!
Therapy can help you:
Learn to love yourself
Self-love and self-compassion do not always come easily. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “I’m my own worst enemy.” That is true for so many of us. Building a strong foundation of self-love and self-compassion can help you learn from mistakes without overidentifying with errors, feel happier and healthier, and bounce back quickly after hardships.
Speak with someone objective about issues that are going on in your life
Talking to a therapist is different from talking to a friend or family member for a number of reasons- one being that a therapist will not have any personal stake in the what is happening in your life. This allows clinicians to be as objective as possible while guiding you to make your own decisions that are best for you based on your goals and values.
Make good things in your life great
Therapy topics do not and are not all about negative life events, issues, or emotions. In many cases, talking to a therapist about things that are going well in life can increase happiness and help you enhance them further.
Navigate big life choices or changes
Similarly to #2, talking with a therapist about a transition or tough decision can be helpful because of objectivity and non-judgement. Clinicians can help you identify pros and cons of different situations, how to take changes (wanted or unwanted) in stride, cope with things without making them worse, and help you gain clarity by holding space for you to explore different options and ideas freely.
Learn to express your needs and wants in a healthy and productive way
In therapy, you can share your thoughts and emotions - raw and unfiltered - and then learn the skills to turn the the raw thoughts/emotions into effective communication.
Build confidence in talking about uncomfortable things
Uncomfortable feelings and situations make many people want to run and hide. In a counseling setting, you are encouraged to identify and discuss the discomfort while learning to manage and sit with the discomfort. As you probably know, running and hiding from things can only work for so long (or maybe not at all). Levels of discomfort are a part of life and often feeling disquiet is signaling you to pay attention to something going on in your life. You must be able to sit with the discomfort to get the information you need to take action.
Learn to identify personal patterns
Therapy is scheduled time for you to focus on YOU. Your therapist will offer different perspectives and through exploration, your therapist will help you identify patterns that are helpful, harmful, or keeping you stuck.
Have an additional person in your corner
At the end of the day, it never hurts to have another person that will listen to you, encourage you and who will be rooting for you to succeed.
Learn skills to cope with stress, sadness, low self-esteem, perfectionism, anxiety and anger
Coping skills are essential to dealing with uncomfortable and painful situations and emotions. There are healthy and unhealthy ways to cope. Healthy coping skills can help you take action in resolving tough situations, improve flexibility in solving problems, and deal with uncomfortable emotions so that you can get unstuck, move forward and improve the situation without making it worse.
Therapy can seem intimidating, intense and – unfortunately – there can be stigma around seeking guidance from a professional about personal things in your life. However, therapists are skilled in helping to make something new (like counseling) feel comfortable. Clinicians are trained in different ways of helping, and how a person helps depends on the professional’s style and specialties. I believe that we can all use professional support from time to time. For some people, therapy is a lifelong journey and for others it can be used to navigate tough times.
If you still have questions and are considering therapy, reach out to a therapist near you. Psychology Today, Therapy Den, and Therapy Tribe are all places where you can read therapist bios, specialties, and more!