Wondering how a therapist will help you? Wondering is there a point to therapy? Hopefully this circle will explain and perhaps give you an idea how to use therapy.
Tag: Therapy
5 Reasons Group Therapy Is the Best Choice Struggling Teens | Psychology Today
Research shows 73 percent improvement in teens treated in group over other forms of therapy.
— Read on www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/when-kids-call-the-shots/201712/5-reasons-group-therapy-is-the-best-choice-struggling-teens
Reasons To Go To Therapy
Hello, Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye
I’m tired of changing therapists…Whether it is because a psychiatric or therapeutic student completed their residency or because they’re going on maternity leave, I can’t stand change. See, after months of adapting to my regular therapist, she left for maternity leave. Not that I’m not happy for her, I just dread starting ALL over again knowing a new therapist. Like it’s not bad enough I have generalized anxiety disorder. So here I was COMPLETELY get nervous about who and what the temporary therapist is like. Then after a few visits I get use to the temp therapist. Then one day… POOF! I hear the temp therapist left from the receptionist and my regular therapist returned from maternity leave and I will be meeting with her again the following week. Ugh!
Is it wrong to feel I liked my temp therapist more than my regular therapist? I felt like she gave me little things that I felt really helped me and she suggested an additional medication in addition to my current anti-depressant medication to help me better help me with my depression. Ugh! I feel so bad for dreading my old therapist! Adjusting is hard because my anxious self doesn’t like change. It prefers consistency and familiarity… especially when it’s helpful. She left just when she was going to work up a case plan for me. So now, I’m wondering what my therapy sessions are going to be like my former therapist. Oh boy… Anyways, I’m glad I saw her last week when I did. 🙂
Repeat After Me…
Can’t… Just Can’t
I’ve been on and off lately from WordPress because of a cold. Actually because of a virus I was fighting. I thought at first it was an ear infection. I had go to the ER only to find out, well…there’s no medication for it. Just resting, avoiding eating sugary foods, taking in electrolytes. I haven’t been substitute teaching for awhile, because well…as much as I love kids, they can be physically and mentally draining.😅 When I first caught the virus I was spinning so much! I couldn’t stand to check on the kids. And you know what also I haven’t been doing for awhile either? Seeing my therapist.
While yes, I try to apply what I’ve learned from her (as well as my past therapists), it’s still hard without seeing one. I don’t know why it’s hard. Just when I think I should be okay without one, I start to fall apart. It’s horrible. Fortunately though I’m seeing her again this week, cause I’m getting better.
Therapy: What To Expect From Your Therapist (Especially On Your First Time)
As as of right now, I am attending three therapy sessions: Celebrate Recovery at my church, therapy at my school, and therapy outside of school. The one I am seeing is outside of school is mainly for me to deal with relationship issues and overcome my sexual assault experience and therapy in my school is mostly to deal with my anxiety and depression. Then there’s is my sessions with my psychologist at school, where I can also get more prescription on my meds, but that’s like one a month.
Yeah I have my hands full with all three of those sessions in addition to student-teaching, going to school and work. Whew! But I’m happy, because I’m able to have the help I need to get through the week. And I feel like I’m getting what I need emotionally and spirituality too, because my spirituality has helped me keep me going in spite of my mental illnesses. I’m learning about relationships through the relationships I’m developing in all those sessions, which then is helping me have a better relationship with myself as well.
So how did I happen to get such wonderful people? Well…to be honest…luck and trial and error. I’ve gone through 5 therapists and I’ve been to a previous Celebrate Recovery event at a church I use to attend, so I’ve learned what I’ve wanted and not wanted in my trials of recovery. My…how I shall I put this…last to third therapist (???) was a good at CBT and helped out a lot on that, but what I didn’t like was how he didn’t seem to take in mind how much God meant a lot to me just because he didn’t believe so much in God (even though he came from a Jewish background. Go figure.) Then if I were to bring up my relationships with guys in how they treat me, he’d kinda get offended, like I was offending him, which was weird. Sometimes, I think back on it, I wished I had switched to another therapist or at least got a female therapist instead.
If you’ve been in an awkward situation with a therapist that doesn’t mean you have to stop going to therapy, but rather change your therapist. I know the change is inconvenient because perhaps your current therapist was better than your previous therapist or it took you forever ever to find the most “decent” therapist. So how do you know if a therapist is right for you? How do you know if they are crossing the line (although that’s what you do in therapy basically)? These are the things I did not like from my previous therapists:
- Not Being Sensitive to my beliefs or Background
- Checking the clock too much
- Imposing religious, spiritual, political or social beliefs—In this case it was more of social beliefs; not believing in monogamous relationships, recommending me to a dating website (that ended up leading me to my assaulter) when perhaps, as much as I wanted, wasn’t ready to be in a relationship yet.
- Not understanding what I want—When I was an undergrad, I told my therapist I felt something was wrong with me, but he didn’t seem think anything was wrong. Yeah he looked as the DSM 4 (yeah, that was a while ago), but he didn’t give me any tests that suggested I may have had a major depressive disorder and general anxiety disorder. I didn’t get diagnosed with those by another mental health professional–this time a psychiatrist—several years later. This would have saved me a lot of time.
My two new therapists have really helped me out a lot, perhaps in more ways than my previous therapists have. They are pretty much the opposite of the previous therapists… well maybe my third to last therapist did challenge me and did help me learn as well, but what I did appreciate from my latest therapists is that they showed acceptance and compassion. It helps that they don’t just see me as a patient or a patient that they’re using for their counseling degree (most of the therapists I’ve seen are at schools), but as a person too and it helps me (indirectly) learn how good relationships form. So if you don’t have a good relationship with a therapist, then like any other person in your life, you can always leave.
Below are some links that can give you advice on the good traits and bad traits of a therapist whether you meet them in person, online, over the phone or through text. I hope these articles will prove most helpful for you! At least it will save you more time. I had to learn the hard and long way!
4 Steps to Finding the Right Therapist for You and Your Anxiety
25 Signs of a Bad Therapist: You Deserve Better
Living Resiliently Blog 