Why Therapy?

I have had a number of friends and aquaintances ask me over the years, in a rather embarrassed fashion, whether I think they ‘need’ therapy. It leaves me rather bemused, because unless I am privy to the story underneath the story, I have no way of answering that question.

But I can answer it in general terms. Why would anyone come to therapy - ever? For some people it’s easy - there is some pressing issue that is causing distress or results in a struggle to cope with life in the day to day. Or they have had a traumatic event or events, which are impacting their normal functioning.

But therapy is not only for the obvious. Sometimes we experience moments in life when circumstances have left us completely disorientated. We lose a partner, or a job, or we find ourselves in a jobs we simply don’t love, our children have left home or you are simply feeling lost, a lack of some sort … the list is endless.

When you find yourself reaching for the wrong kind of help - addictive behaviours and habits that you know are not helping, but somehow in the moment offer temporary relief.

Othertimes, might find ourselves acting completely out of character, or reacting in a very strong way to a benign incident. If this keeps happening, it’s probably a sign that something is just off. Good friends can help (a lot!), but often they are processing their own things too, or perhaps you feel you have imposed too much on their listening ear, or it’s something you can’t get your head around and almost need the help to articulate what ‘it’ is.

Mostly, its helpful to have a trained listening professional who can help elucidate your story, bring some clarity and hopefully give you some useful tools so that you can move on in your life with ease again.

The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve, sometimes with clarity, sometimes with pain, but it remains yours and yours alone.. you decide how you live it day to day.