Therapy and growth

Change, even if it’s positive, can lead to emotional and physical stress: you find yourself in a situation where you don’t know what to expect and that leads to confusion.

A professional can help you through a situation that feels insurmountable.

Everyone makes missteps and occasionally slips into risky behaviors.

But when you can’t stop a specific behavior, if it’s interfering with your ability to function properly in your daily life, or it’s negatively affecting your relationships, it’s time to pause and seek help.

Our emotions are always mediated by some form of thinking. 

If our thoughts determine how we feel, that means how we habitually think will determine how we habitually feel.

It happens when we assume we understand what other people are thinking without any real evidence.

It is a failure of imagination because we often only imagine and focus on the negative aspects.

When we hide our pain and isolate ourselves, we throw away the most powerful antidepressant: loving support from people who care about us.

You don’t need coping strategies when you’re sad discouraged, or helpless. You need people. You need support. You need someone to give you a hug and listen carefully to your story.

Most of us hesitate to push back and stand up for ourselves because we’re afraid of being perceived as aggressive or rude. And so we default to being passive.

But there’s a middle road between being passive and aggressive: You can be assertive. It means standing up for your own wants, needs, and values, in an honest and respectful way.

Most mental health professionals treat mental illness by combining psychotherapy and medication or by therapy alone. Many clients choose the latter when they don’t need medication or think of it as burdensome. 

Untrained people can’t offer the same mental health benefits as a mental health professional could.

Your mental health is too big a responsibility to place on the people in your life. They will be there for you during hard times, but shouldn’t be a substitute for therapy.

There is a common misconception that going to therapy, you will lie down on a couch, staring at the ceiling, and talk while an emotionless professional sits near you and writes on a notepad.

Most therapists do have couches in their offices. But many people in therapy choose to sit and talk to their therapist, who often responds. 

Some methods of psychotherapy and complex issues may take some time, but many interventions are shorter. Also, many choose to stay in therapy after the issue that brought them has been addressed to better understand themselves and their thoughts.

Most therapists are encouraging and emphatic, and some therapy models emphasize this warm support more than others. But not all therapy works this way, therapists also have to challenge and educate clients.

There are many other areas of expertise that require less effort and are more financially rewarding than therapy. Therapists who thrive in this work deeply respect humanity and aren’t driven by money.

The connection between a person and his or her animal has long been known to have many benefits, from improving cardiovascular health to calming one. 

Among the goals that a pet therapy program can include: the improvement of motor skills and joint movement and an increase in your happiness level.

Among the individuals who should consider pet therapy are the ones who suffer from chronic heart failure or mental health disorders. However, there are a few risks to be taken into account, such as allergies and injuries that can occur on both humans' and animals' side.

Misconceptions may make it hard for you to pinpoint the threshold for significant psychological distress in yourself or others. And can add hurdles to successfully initiating psychotherapy or being willing to stick with it.

Understanding what not to expect from the experience can help you approach treatment as an educated consumer with an open mind.

Some approaches take more time than others, but it is highly unlikely that lasting change for longstanding issues can be achieved in a few sessions of psychotherapy.

The first appointments are to determine if (and what kind of) therapy can be helpful. You will talk about what led you to seek care and about medical, social, and family history to help the therapist get to know you better.