“I don’t need therapy, I don’t have a psychological problem!”

“Therapy is just talk. Why should I pay for that?

“How can an outsider help with my relationship problems?”

If you have had the above thoughts about going to therapy, you’re following a myth! Therapy is not just treatment for psychological problems and mental illness. Therapy is a wonderful tool for growth, enrichment, and self-awareness! Here are five perfectly good reasons to go to therapy:

1. De-stress and decompress

An amazing benefit of therapy is effective stress management. Long term stress in our lives can take a toll on our mental as well as physical health. It can lead to problems with the digestive system, cardiovascular system, insomnia, blood pressure etc. On an emotional level, it can cause anger, irritability, fatigue, loss of focus and concentration etc. We usually don’t recognise stress until we see its impact on our minds and bodies. Then we try to do some damage control by taking meditation sessions etc. However, stress requires systematic long-term management and the way we feel and respond to stress is different for everyone. Therapy helps to assess our coping styles and mental barriers to stress reduction and by eliminating the problem from the roots, it can help to develop an all-around positive outlook and enhance productivity.

2. Managing Difficult Emotions

None of us are taught how to regulate difficult and overwhelming emotions as a part of our school curriculum! Therefore when emotions rise, we feel like we’re drowning in the flood. But guess what? You can actually learn how to manage your emotions in a step by step manner! Your therapist can coach you in the vocabulary of emotions, how they are triggered, what their function is, what they do for you, and how to hear what they say! After you learn emotional regulation, you will never feel at the mercy of your emotions - you will be best friends with them!

3. Creating better relationships

How we connect with people is influenced by our past experiences and the way we look at the world. Sometimes our reactions and thoughts can make it difficult to navigate through complex relationships. This causes a lot of pain and heartache. We also keep repeating the same patterns over and over again which can be self-destructive. Therapy can help you unearth your subconscious processes and can coach you on healthy relationship patterns, so that you not only make healthy responses towards the people in your life, you can also develop an understanding of what is unhealthy and can end it at the right time.

4. Making better decisions

Therapy can help you make better choices in life. Does this mean that your therapist tells you what to do? NO. That’s because the choices you make have to come from you because someone else’s thought process cannot be yours. In therapy you can have a safe, non-judgemental sounding board and a mental mirror, where your therapist will help you attain an objective view of the problem you’re trying to solve, will show you all the available options, guide you through tolerating any discomfort and help you make a choice in a way that you are also best prepared for any consequences that come your way.

5. Lead a more balanced life

Most of us live our lives on autopilot. We just drift through life, led by our emotions or by other people’s expectations. There is very little time given to introspection and figuring out what it is that WE really want. That is why, more often than not, life seems draining and joyless. A balanced life is one where we make conscious choices and all our actions are performed with clarity and awareness. Therapy can declutter your mind and increase focus and sharpness in decision making. It can also make you more mindful in your daily life so that you can truly live each day fully instead of just tumbling from one day to another!

There you go! It’s easy to see how therapy can contribute to our daily lives even when we are not struggling with a clinical mental illness and we can use therapy to create better lives proactively, just like eating healthy and going for a morning walk even if you don’t have diabetes! So take charge of your life and click here to book an appointment with one of our experts right away!