What is Therapy Really Anyway?

If you are hurting inside and your overall quality of life isn’t working, talking with friends or family members can sometimes help you to feel a little better for a little while. Unfortunately the most well meaning friend however cannot provide therapy. Therapy is a highly specialized treatment process that uses specific techniques that offer effective, long lasting help for people suffering from a wide range of difficulties such as emotional distress, anxiety, marital strife, fears, a significant loss, chronic physical illnesses, or a clinical disorder.  Therapy can also help fulfill aspirations for personal growth, academic goals, career management, or self-improvement.

One of the biggest misconceptions about therapy however is that seeing a therapist is a sign of weakness.  In fact, the opposite is quite true.  Recognizing the need for help and seeking professional therapy is a sign of both strength and your determination to live a productive and meaningful life.  Working together, you and your therapist will identify your goals – what you want to have happen – and work towards improving your symptoms and overall quality of life. 

Therapy has one clear and definite purpose: That something of positive value and constructive usefulness will come out of it for you.  This can come not only from insight into your life and behavior, but from making proactive plans and behavior changes.

As therapy progresses and your trust in the therapist’s non-judgmental acceptance of your thoughts and feelings is established, you will actually use the relationship as an opportunity to rethink and reshape significant emotional experiences and work through past and current challenges in your life.  In therapy, you intentionally choose to make yourself vulnerable to another human being and you may talk about some things that are very painful for you. However, it is the very process of trusting that it’s safe to release your feelings—the good and the bad--and knowing that the therapeutic relationship permits you to safely explore and release deeply felt sources of conflict and dissatisfaction that will finally allow you to make lasting, positive changes in your life.

"In therapy the client and therapist meet privately in a comfortable office setting where conflicts, past and current pain, or persisting life challenges can be safely explored, experienced, and worked through."