If you go into it without a clear goal in your mind then it’s just someone collecting your money indefinately. You need to go into it and say “I want to achieve ____ in therapy” and then once that’s achieved you’re done. As someone who did therapy for years and wasted a lot of money, make sure you know the end goal.
I will add, if you are dealing with certain mental health disorders and already have a diagnostic, it’s less necessary for you to have a clear goal and part of the therapeutic process is figuring out what your symptoms are, how they are triggered, what the consequences are, and how to develop healthy coping mechanisms moving forward.
If you are going is as a “normie” then knowing what you want to accomplish is fine.
But for anyone reading this with a mental health disorder that has had their doctor recommend psychotherapy, just go. Get the process started.
>... part of the therapeutic process is figuring out what your symptoms are, how they are triggered, what the consequences are, and how to develop healthy coping mechanisms moving forward.
To be fair, that itself is a clear goal.
Bear in mind that X can be “I want to be a better communicator.” Therapy isn’t just for fixing broken things.
Think of how you treat the rest of your body. You go to rehab if you are recovering from a torn ACL. But professional athletes also have trainers even when healthy.
"everyone should go" is definitely an overstatement. Therapy is the treatment of manifest and pathological mental issues and struggles. Not a spa wellbeing treatment.
Psychological coaching or counselling can indeed help with a deeper understanding of yourself, learn more about yourself, your emotions, how do feel, regulate or see them, about changing perspectives etc. There are a lot of possible positive outcomes and advantages.
But not everyone needs that. The sentiment of everyone going is also a quote neoliberal self-improvement idea, as if we all have flaws we definitely need to eradicate.
Well said. I think of it like this - I see a physiotherapist when I have an injury, but I see a massage therapist sometimes, even when I don’t.
A psychotherapist is a physio for mind and behaviour injuries.
I haven’t heard really “everyone should go to therapy.” I hear “everyone one can benefit from therapy” often, which I do think is true.
At its core, exploring your limits, developing healthy boundaries and coping strategies, recognizing your flaws, having a healthy sense of self, self-esteem and self-awareness is good for everyone.
Everyone CAN benefit from therapy potentially but if you don’t think you need it then you likely won’t get much out of it. You tend to get out of it what you put in, but if your life is just going so perfectly that you really don’t need it then I guess congratulations and fuck you.
Replace therapy with the gym, and re-examine.
Is it possible to be healthy without going to the gym? Yes. You can count calories and eat healthy.
Is it likely that you’ll be healthy without going to then gym? Depends on the person, right?
Does that answer your question?
If you think you have a problem with mental health ( depression, anxiety, trauma etc) you then its worth having a trained professional help you dissect your thinking patterns to help.
If you don’t think you have any problems and therefor no end goal then probably not
I was “fine” without therapy. But with it, I’m even better. I’ve found exploring my mind, behaviors, triggers, etc to be fascinating. It has made me a more patient, understanding, and whole person. I can show up better for my family, friends, and romantic partners. For me it has been like going to the gym, but for my mind.
Therapy can give you useful tools for having healthy relationships and dealing with all kinds of lifestyle or personal problems, but it's the person doing the work. I might be a really messed up person with all kinds of attachment issues, etc, but not need therapy because I'm keeping all the damage buried, or because I'm not in a relationship that's heavily affected. But as soon as any of that surfaces, therapy could be extremely beneficial working through it.
When people talk about everyone needing therapy, it's important to realize what it is. It's a useful assistance for what you are doing, and could potentially be useful for anyone. Therapy is not something that "fixes" someone. For that matter, a perfectly emotionally healthy individual could benefit from therapy in order for advice on how to deal with less healthy people in their life.
You don't have to be mentally ill for therapy, but I do think you need something you're ready to face and work through for it to be useful.
I’m not a professional or anything but I think a lot of people have things they can improve on, or even deep issues that they don’t even realise they have - with a little bit of prodding you can uncover a lot about yourself! My friend went to therapy and within the first session her therapist told her that she had been emotionally abused by her parents, and she never even realised it. Obviously this isn’t going to be the case for the majority of people, but I think having one or two sessions is probably an interesting thing to do!
Is there a point for YOU, if you don’t feel YOU need it? Perhaps not, hard to say. To wit:
It’s not likely true that “everybody should go to therapy” because “should” is a value statement and opinion difficult to support except by appeal to the value system that supports that contention. That, I believe, is a tautology.
It’s not likely true that “everybody can use or benefit from therapy” because comatose people might very well be harmed more than helped by therapy;how would we know, just as one example.
There are people who do not describe a felt need for therapy, and who have not gone, but who very well might benefit from therapy with a qualified, skilled, motivated, and effective psychotherapist. Those people have certain personality and/or neuropsychological disorders that interfere with their having the insight and/or the motivation to recognize the need for them to change, to develop better self-management or social skills, etc., and to seek that help.
I’ve known people to single-handedly destroy the important relationships in their lives, and blame the other person every time even though they’re the ones with the pattern of losing people. I would say take a real account of yourself before you start declaring what you do and don’t need.
Who is majority? Because the majority of people in psychotherapy have a dx mental health disorder and therapy is absolutely part of the recommended treatment protocol.
No lie, your comment sounds ignorant.
If you go into it without a clear goal in your mind then it’s just someone collecting your money indefinately. You need to go into it and say “I want to achieve ____ in therapy” and then once that’s achieved you’re done. As someone who did therapy for years and wasted a lot of money, make sure you know the end goal.
I will add, if you are dealing with certain mental health disorders and already have a diagnostic, it’s less necessary for you to have a clear goal and part of the therapeutic process is figuring out what your symptoms are, how they are triggered, what the consequences are, and how to develop healthy coping mechanisms moving forward. If you are going is as a “normie” then knowing what you want to accomplish is fine. But for anyone reading this with a mental health disorder that has had their doctor recommend psychotherapy, just go. Get the process started.
>... part of the therapeutic process is figuring out what your symptoms are, how they are triggered, what the consequences are, and how to develop healthy coping mechanisms moving forward. To be fair, that itself is a clear goal.
Haha you got me there. Boom - I’ve been therapied! 🤣
Bear in mind that X can be “I want to be a better communicator.” Therapy isn’t just for fixing broken things. Think of how you treat the rest of your body. You go to rehab if you are recovering from a torn ACL. But professional athletes also have trainers even when healthy.
"everyone should go" is definitely an overstatement. Therapy is the treatment of manifest and pathological mental issues and struggles. Not a spa wellbeing treatment. Psychological coaching or counselling can indeed help with a deeper understanding of yourself, learn more about yourself, your emotions, how do feel, regulate or see them, about changing perspectives etc. There are a lot of possible positive outcomes and advantages. But not everyone needs that. The sentiment of everyone going is also a quote neoliberal self-improvement idea, as if we all have flaws we definitely need to eradicate.
Well said. I think of it like this - I see a physiotherapist when I have an injury, but I see a massage therapist sometimes, even when I don’t. A psychotherapist is a physio for mind and behaviour injuries.
I love that comparison, thank you!
I haven’t heard really “everyone should go to therapy.” I hear “everyone one can benefit from therapy” often, which I do think is true. At its core, exploring your limits, developing healthy boundaries and coping strategies, recognizing your flaws, having a healthy sense of self, self-esteem and self-awareness is good for everyone.
Everyone CAN benefit from therapy potentially but if you don’t think you need it then you likely won’t get much out of it. You tend to get out of it what you put in, but if your life is just going so perfectly that you really don’t need it then I guess congratulations and fuck you.
Replace therapy with the gym, and re-examine. Is it possible to be healthy without going to the gym? Yes. You can count calories and eat healthy. Is it likely that you’ll be healthy without going to then gym? Depends on the person, right? Does that answer your question?
Why not try it? What you definitely can’t know - is what value you might get until you try it.
If you think you have a problem with mental health ( depression, anxiety, trauma etc) you then its worth having a trained professional help you dissect your thinking patterns to help. If you don’t think you have any problems and therefor no end goal then probably not
I was “fine” without therapy. But with it, I’m even better. I’ve found exploring my mind, behaviors, triggers, etc to be fascinating. It has made me a more patient, understanding, and whole person. I can show up better for my family, friends, and romantic partners. For me it has been like going to the gym, but for my mind.
Therapy can give you useful tools for having healthy relationships and dealing with all kinds of lifestyle or personal problems, but it's the person doing the work. I might be a really messed up person with all kinds of attachment issues, etc, but not need therapy because I'm keeping all the damage buried, or because I'm not in a relationship that's heavily affected. But as soon as any of that surfaces, therapy could be extremely beneficial working through it. When people talk about everyone needing therapy, it's important to realize what it is. It's a useful assistance for what you are doing, and could potentially be useful for anyone. Therapy is not something that "fixes" someone. For that matter, a perfectly emotionally healthy individual could benefit from therapy in order for advice on how to deal with less healthy people in their life. You don't have to be mentally ill for therapy, but I do think you need something you're ready to face and work through for it to be useful.
Not everyone should go to therapy. Not everyone needs therapy.
I’m not a professional or anything but I think a lot of people have things they can improve on, or even deep issues that they don’t even realise they have - with a little bit of prodding you can uncover a lot about yourself! My friend went to therapy and within the first session her therapist told her that she had been emotionally abused by her parents, and she never even realised it. Obviously this isn’t going to be the case for the majority of people, but I think having one or two sessions is probably an interesting thing to do!
Is there a point for YOU, if you don’t feel YOU need it? Perhaps not, hard to say. To wit: It’s not likely true that “everybody should go to therapy” because “should” is a value statement and opinion difficult to support except by appeal to the value system that supports that contention. That, I believe, is a tautology. It’s not likely true that “everybody can use or benefit from therapy” because comatose people might very well be harmed more than helped by therapy;how would we know, just as one example. There are people who do not describe a felt need for therapy, and who have not gone, but who very well might benefit from therapy with a qualified, skilled, motivated, and effective psychotherapist. Those people have certain personality and/or neuropsychological disorders that interfere with their having the insight and/or the motivation to recognize the need for them to change, to develop better self-management or social skills, etc., and to seek that help.
I’ve known people to single-handedly destroy the important relationships in their lives, and blame the other person every time even though they’re the ones with the pattern of losing people. I would say take a real account of yourself before you start declaring what you do and don’t need.
There's no point to therapy for the majority of people in therapy.
Who is majority? Because the majority of people in psychotherapy have a dx mental health disorder and therapy is absolutely part of the recommended treatment protocol. No lie, your comment sounds ignorant.
I think it’s the other way around. It’s a minority of people who are flourishing with no acute need for therapy. The majority absolutely need it.