What a Therapist Would Like you to Know
Hi everyone!
I hope you are all well :) I wanted to share with you some things that a therapist would like you to know and invite the 7 Cups therapists to share something they would also like you to know.
I wanted you to know that being engaged in therapy is not something that you should be ashamed of. Sadly, there is stigma associated with reaching out for therapy; this shouldn't be there as reaching out is a sign of strength! One of my clients felt a sense of inadequacy when they reached out again for therapy after a break and felt like they should have been able to work without a therapist for much longer. I told him it was a sign of strength and self-awareness that he knew he may need to re-reach for therapy to process his thoughts.
I hope you enjoy reading the thread! Please feel free to add your comments and reflections too :)
@LisaMeighanMScGMBPsS
Y'all are always trying so well to connect with the community more and find more ways to help in different ways, it truly is super appreciated. ❤
It truly is a commendable thing acknowledging the need for support and trying to reach out, something to be uber proud of for sure! ✨
Thanks for this post, Lisa, looking forward to hear what everyone adds here! ❤
@Sunisshiningandsoareyou
Thank you for your lovely words as always! The community at 7 Cups is an amazing place to be and thank you all for being so inviting!
Hello Everyone,
My name is Johanna and I am a therapist here on 7 cups! I'd firstly like to greet you all! It is an honour to be part of such a supportive community :) As Lisa said, it is truly a sign of strength when a person realises they need help and reaches out for support. I often hear people say that they would like to reach out for help but are anxious (not knowing what to expect of the process) and scared (to reveal parts of themselves to others and to get in touch with parts of themselves that they may have been embarrassed or ashamed of). I'd like to open this discussion to the community and hear what your personal fears, concerns or anxieties would be in reaching our for support from a therapist? What do you imagine the therapeutic journey to be like?
One of my favourite quotes is "Courage is fear walking". That is, we can not eliminate fear or anxiety, but we can choose what we want to do and is helpful anyway, even when we are scared. Doing something we find meaningful, even if it means venturing out of our comfort zone, allows us to become familiar and tolerate the "fear" we were so scared to face, and see that we can tolerate it!
@JohannaLiasidesMSc
Such wise words Johanna and I am looking forward to the community sharing with you their fears and views about therapy :)
@JohannaLiasidesMSc
Hello, It is nice to meet you, and I am glad that you ask these questions. I am not sure if I can be honest or if I need to dress up my answers. I will try to be somewhere in between if that is ok. I am an older person who has had quite a bit of interaction with therapy over the years. Back in my day, the therapy was awful. We talked to our therapist and they talked to the doctors they medicated you to the point of being dysfunctional, and lethargic, and you sleep away your issues supposedly. Yes, a lot of progress has been made since then, but the trauma that was caused by that along with whatever we sought help for just made it worse.
Now new teaching and better therapists with more knowledge are on the rise. However, there are therapists that are not equipt to deal with a lot of the issues we face, and they say things to us that are very hurtful or just rude. I have had a therapist 4 almost 3.5 years for her to now say she is retiring with only a month's notice. That hurts too because we already have trust issues and are broken and stuff like that hurts when you have exposed yourself and made yourself vulnerable enough to talk now you have to start all over again with someone new. We begin to put up a wall of resistance that makes it even harder to want to reach out and start over again. This has been my experience and now I just hate to open that door of bad memories to try again, although I really need a Therapist.
I mean no harm in posting this, it is just my experience and things that keep us from reaching out for help. I am not classifying all therapists in a pile, because I had one great therapist in my whole life but she has died. Good therapy is available but like looking for a needle in a haystack. I hope this sheds a bit of light on the questions you asked. I thank you for the opportunity to share this with you❤️
@scarletPear1945
Thank you for sharing this with me. I admire how brave you were to keep reaching out for therapy even with the medical trauma and bad experiences you have been through. It must be truly crushing that your therapist of several years is retiring giving you only a month's notice. I can imagine you need a lot longer than that to process and talk through the loss, as well as come up with a plan for your next steps to make sure you have support around you when your therapy ends. I encourage you to talk to your therapist about your feelings regarding her "abrupt" termination and how it has impacted you. I also encourage you to suggest that you both come up with a plan for next steps. Trusting someone else, especially with all that you have been through, must be really tough and I do hope you keep reaching out and find another trustworthy and ethical therapist. I'm here and the rest of the community are here to support you through this transition, please write whenever you need to.
@JohannaLiasidesMSc
Thank you so much for such a caring reply. My therapist has already stoped her services. I don't have another. I have contacted about 4 or 5 therapist in my area but they won't call me to set up appointments which I think is very unprofessional. I called Mental Health which is 15 minutes away, but they told me I had to go to one that is almost an hour away that I don't like to drive that far. The system is messed up. I really want a therapist but.......❤️
@LisaMeighanMScGMBPsS. I was a very troubled young person. It took some time but therapy actually helped me to cope better and improve my life. I would definitely go to therapy again if needed.
@adventurousBranch3786
This is just so amazing to hear and thank you again for sharing what it helped you with. I am so glad that you had a positive experience and would go back to therapy. If you feel comfortable sharing, what do you think it taught you?
