This seems an obvious question to me, but people often ask me why people go to therapy. For those that have never sought out a therapist, this post may be useful in explaining how therapy can be hugely beneficial.
Problems that therapy can improve:
Relationships
I see couples who have become stuck in a rut. Their communication and behaviour takes a familiar pattern and you can’t get a different outcome if you keep doing things the same way, right?
An objective therapist can help identify these unproductive and inefficient patterns and help couples establish a new and different dynamic that opens up new ways of communicating. A therapist can inject new energy into a stale relationship that is merely surviving.
Depression/Anxiety
Many individuals speak to a therapist to help them ease their feelings of depression and anxiety. Often just have an outlet can make a huge difference. Speaking to a trained therapist is very different to chatting to a friend. A therapist is trained to stop dysfunctional and irrational thoughts and help a person challenge them and find new alternative beliefs and ways of looking at themselves and the world. Often, we think a certain way and accept out attitudes and outlook as normal and as fact when the reality is that our thinking is merely our perception of the world – not the exact truth. Often there isn’t even any truth to some of the beliefs we hold on to. These outdated beliefs often come from our childhood and need to be updated.
Other types of anxiety that therapy helps with: social anxiety, health anxiety, panic disorder.
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder
Being ruled by obsessions (intrusive thoughts) and compulsions (incontrollable urges) can wreak havoc in a person’s life. Cognitive behavioural therapy works well to help manage and reduce these thoughts/behaviours.
Post traumatic stress disorder
Some events are so upsetting that they create a considerable amount of trauma that needs to be worked though in a systematic manner. Again, Cognitive behavioural therapy is very effective in dealing with PTSD which often involves flash backs and recurring nightmares, reliving the event.
Clients come to see me for many different reasons. There is always some difficulty that they feel they cannot deal with alone and counselling is extremely useful in this regard.
Mandy X
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Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
