Why would I want to go to therapy if I feel fine?? I hear this a lot when people ask about therapy. So let me start by explaining the world of therapy and why you may benefit from therapy even if your mental health is good.
The world of therapy until very recently has been a world where to help was to "fix" mentally unwell people. However this is not the case, and I can vouch for the many benefits of that therapy can afford someone.
Therapy was developed by theorists to help us to understand mental health and the various conditions that can arise from mental ill health. Also these theorists wanted to try to understand the human brain and what makes humans tick. In these early days with limited resources it was hard to prove research and theories, so it was easy for society to ignore these theories as class them as nonsense. People did not understand mental ill health and even feared how some of these conditions could affect how a human behaved at times. The answer was to institutionalise these people who were unwell. I am instantly reminded of how some of the war veterans that were described as having "shellshock" and put into mental institutions. We now understand this as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). One old saying springs to mind here,
"out of sight out of mind"
So people who were mentally unwell became stigmatised and shut away from society. The general public became embarrassed and would not talk about their mental ill health. Why would you if you were to be shamed, shunned & ridiculed. Some cultures still today fear mental ill health seeing it as a weakness, with sayings such as "big boys don't cry", "come put your big girl pants on", "you've got to be strong", Men don't cry. Some of these sayings are said from such an early age. We don't realise how words can have a huge impact. What feels like an innocent saying, leaves a belief, what we call a core belief, embedded in our unconscious self. This belief becomes a part of our understanding and our unconscious self then believes these sayings. As we grow we do not understand why it can be hard to show emotion, this is because our thoughts, feelings and behaviours all come from our unconscious parts. Have you ever experienced something where you feel like you want to cry but it won't happen, it is like an invisible force is holding back the tears.
Even now I hear so many people say to me that they can't cry, that it is a sign of weakness. This is upsetting to hear, that these messages are still part of our daily life.
It is human to feel and express emotion. The reason we need to feel emotion, it helps us to understand our experiences and it helps to inform our choices. To not feel leaves us numb and just existing and not connecting to life.
"To feel is to live".......
This is just one example of starting to learn about yourself as a human being. So therapy can be a place to educate yourself understand what makes you "tick". Understand why you may have certain traits, get to know your personality and how your early experiences can really impact your adult life. How you develop relationships, communicate with others, how to communicate with yourself. As you can see there are many reasons for going to therapy and why would you not want to understand yourself and how you function in the world? why would I need therapy?
If this article has intrigued you or you just want some explanations about why you react or behave in situations then come on find a therapist that feels comfortable for you and give it a go. It may just be the best decision you have ever made............
Good luck and enjoy your journey of learning about you.