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Do you go to therapy for your mental health?
May marks the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Month! I’m a big advocate for all things mental health and consider it just as important as my physical health.
Today I want to talk about therapy. I’ve tried therapy in the past but didn’t like it at all. Truthfully, I was frustrated by that feeling because I know that therapy is a great tool. But I honestly think the therapists just weren’t the right fit for me. I need to shop around I guess, but the thought of that exhausts me.
Though I haven’t found the right therapist, I do have a life coach who also has SMA and highly recommend her! Her name is Amber Bosselman, and she’s been so helpful. I always feel enlightened after our sessions.
Do you go to therapy or have a life coach? Is it helpful?
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6 Replies
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I’m hesitant as well just because it’s another thing to have to do. I’ve got enough on my plate as it is without adding therapy on top of that. Great though for those who do make the effort. Would you try it again if you found the right fit?
Amber seems like an awesome person. She’s been at a few of the online socials. Have you ever met in person? It’s so nice to be able to connect online.
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I think I would try again if I found the right fit. I just haven’t felt motivated to actually go and do that. As important as my mental health is there are so many recurring appointments on my calendar that it seems a little daunting to add another. Amber is great though. We have never met in person but maybe one day!
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Hi Alyssa,
I have been going to a therapist since early 2020 (pre-pandemic – whether the timing was good or bad, I’ll never know). She works for me pretty well, but I think whether therapy works out for someone is down to individual difference, and also the type of treatment approach the therapist employs. There’s a lot of different types – most common is Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), but there’s also things like Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Some therapists blend the strategies together for a customized treatment approach, because sometimes certain therapy approaches can actually be detrimental. For example, CBT is common because it’s effective for a wide variety of mental illnesses and struggles, but it’s doesn’t work for everyone – for some, it unintentionally makes them feel like things that are out of their control are their fault. As another example, ACT works best for things like OCD, where a preoccupation with internal thoughts and the morality of those thoughts can become intensely distressing, but it might not do much for something else. Whether therapy helps is also dependent on who your therapist is. It’s horrible, but a fact that some therapists are bullies and shouldn’t be a therapist. Other times, the therapist may not understand and may employ ineffective or inadvertently harmful methods. It can take a while and more than a few tries to find the “right” therapist because of this. And the fact remains that some people just don’t benefit from therapy, and need to manage their mental health in other ways. So while I go to therapy and benefit from it, it’s entirely circumstantial, and I don’t necessarily recommend it to everyone. It does help to have someone to talk to, but that someone doesn’t have to be a therapist, as long as it’s handled safely, respectfully, and with consent.
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Also my name is Rian. I can’t figure out how to change my profile information. Whenever I click “edit” it leads to a thread about movies.
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Hey Rian, I made the change for you.
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Hey Rian. Thank you so much for your response! It was so informative. I’m not sure which type of therapy would be most helpful for me if any at all. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you go about finding a therapist? Did it take time to find the right one?
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