Some believe that counseling is only for weaklings and not for strong-headed people who hide their feelings. In reality, the use of psychotherapy to achieve deep healing and success are a good idea, and the wisest of people, globally, use it.
Unfortunately, people’s lives have become very busy, stressful, and full of gadgets. They create poor attachments and a sense of loneliness because they are afraid to talk about daily life issues. Many of us are raised with the idea that private matters should be kept confidential and pushed under the rug. This is the worst thing you could ever do to yourself. Repressing your emotions and not addressing your psychological concerns, particularly if you’ve experienced significant pain or abuse, can lead to complications–within and without. Depression, for example, substantially contributes to the global burden because it’s the world’s top cause of mental disability and the source of lost productivity each year. So, what can a person do about issues similar, or some-what similar, to this?
The benefit of “talk therapy” (and its various methods) are the answer. This type of therapy has varieties like psychodynamic therapy, grief counseling, cognitive-behavioural therapy, spiritual therapy, group therapy, etc., that deals with the symptoms and roots of a person’s issues. Why is this important? Well, if you don’t address the source of your issues, you are essentially bound to the past.
So, let’s see how talking to a therapist, who uses these therapies, and others, can be of great help to you:
Physical symptoms are addressed in a therapeutic way:
Physical symptoms are common per psychological stress and anxiety. These issues are known to have a negative impact on one’s body. The body frequently responds to stress and anxiety in various ways, like nausea, headaches, trouble sleeping, numbness, and many other bodily symptoms. When one represses their emotional pain; meaning, for example, they like to keep it hidden from the world, it creates psychological-emotional-behavioral-physical problems. This needs to be addressed in therapy for relief.
Repressed feelings will come back to haunt you:
The main issue with restriction, or not talking about past issues, is that these unspoken thoughts, emotions, and traumas can build up and eventually explode. Many individuals avoid talking about their sentiments regarding a wide range of issues. However, repressing one’s emotions, for example, won’t make them disappear. Even if you don’t subsequently experience a complete emotional breakdown, failing to process events and feelings results in negative self-talk. This negatively impacts various aspects of life, including your relationship with your lover, parents, children, coworkers, and even yourself. Therefore, learning to process and resolve them per—therapy—will impact your life in many positive ways.
Additionally, the passive-aggressive gimmick will disappear:
People show angry feelings frequently through passive aggression rather than being more direct and less aggressive. Someone slighted may respond with sarcasm, engage in sneakiness, or lie about something. However, per therapy, this behaviour gets processed so it no longer comes out as passive aggressiveness when dealing with old (or new) anger.
Therapy will change how you view others:
One advantage of therapy is that it improves your understanding about yourself and others. For example, old unprocessed negative ideas get settled in your unconscious mind, causing you to perceive the world through that corrupted lens and make assumptions that may or may not be accurate. People start to recognize how they often make assumptions about what the other person intended when we engage with them in psychoanalytically focused therapy, e.g., Jungian, Gnostic-Pneumatherapy, etc. They are frequently shocked to learn that the other person had an entirely different perspective when they do a reality check by asking them what they think or feel after saying something. Therapy helps one to comprehend another’s true motives when we no longer possess the clutter of our own assumptions.
Therapy prepares you for future curveballs:
Knowing how to handle both tremendous and minor difficulties, in a healthy way, is crucial because they will occasionally arise. Being conscious of one’s sentiments in a conflict situation is beneficial. You will undoubtedly experience conflict if, for instance, your supervisor is piling on work for you, and you are upset with them for doing so. You can better handle the issue by taking stock of both the external situation, your boss’ requests, and the internal situation, your growing resentment, aggravation, and fear of losing your job, if you say: “no.” To better understand oneself, one may talk about issues with a therapist and think about the triggered emotions and why. Then, one is more liberated to consider how to react proactively. The secret is to figure out how to develop a game plan to deal with circumstances rather than letting them consume you, and this takes much practice. Therefore, going to therapy can keep you on track for healing purposes.
Long-term benefits of therapy:
The fact that talk therapy has long-lasting benefits is a significant advantage. This is because, in addition to resolving issues, you are also creating the resources–internal and external–which are necessary to deal with them in the future, e.g, coping skills. Persistent improvement can be seen over time which will further solidify after therapy ends. This makes sense since it implies that even after receiving treatment, we should keep using the reflective lens to consider, discuss, and express our views about our inner selves. Internalizing the therapeutic process allows self-therapy to continue where traditional therapy breaks off.
The Final Word!
In modern times, more people are beginning to discuss their difficulties and mental health problems. Slowly, the stigma is dissipating. Going through counseling with a skilled therapist would be of great help if you can’t effectively talk to your family, friends, etc. With an objective therapist, you will feel more relaxed to be upfront, and your positive changes, per therapy, might give your close ones the go-ahead to follow suit. Afterall, there’s a good chance it will start some “constructive, address-worthy” conversations!
