How a Mental Health Therapist Actually Helps You Feel Better

If you’re like most people, you grew up being conditioned that some topics aren’t to be spoken about.

• Don’t show weakness.
• Maintain privacy.
• Toughen up and deal with it.
• Emotions are not a topic for polite conversation.

The list and the many variations go on.

Meanwhile, each and every one of us is craving more. And mental health conditions like anxiety and depression keep becoming more common.

Fortunately, an antidote to this paradigm already exists. It’s called therapy and it can help you in countless ways. Let’s break past the stigma and the programming and take a closer look.

6 Ways a Mental Health Therapist Actually Helps You Feel Better

For clarification, there are many different forms of therapy, e.g. individual, group, couples, or family therapy. Thus, there are also many different kinds of mental health therapists.

Regardless of such specifics, the American Psychological Association reports that roughly 75 percent of those who try talk therapy report experiencing positive results.

To follow are some general benefits to consider.

1. Practicing Open Dialogue

This is less common than you may realize. Your time with your therapist might be the only truly blunt, honest conversation you have. You dredge up emotions, identify causes and triggers, and learn to recognize how you may be self-sabotaging. Of course, this work can help reduce symptoms and create solutions. It also gets you comfortable with practicing open dialogue more often elsewhere in your life.

2. Dealing With Trauma

Experiences from our past can be impacting your daily life right here and now. Addressing past trauma is challenging work. Your mental health therapist is trained to guide you through the process. Your willingness to discuss and resolve trauma can be a major positive catalyst in your life.

3. A Counterbalance to Loneliness

Some people want to talk about their feelings but don’t have anyone in their lives to do so. Such loneliness is reason enough to seek help. You’ll have someone to listen and validate. They will work with you to create solutions. Also, therapy is where you can discuss the sense of isolation you feel.

Your mental health therapist is part of your support system. With their help, you can grow that support system in a healthy manner.

4. Learning How to Cope in a Healthy Way

We live in a stressful world. Whether we realize it or not, we each create coping mechanisms. Problems arise when these mechanisms are unhealthy. Your weekly therapy sessions will shine a light on your coping mechanisms. Working as a team, you and your therapist will break down these habits to see which of them are helping and which are not.

Running parallel to this process, therapy will also guide you to identify and reject other bad habits you may have developed. It’s hard to see these patterns on your own.

5. Improving Your Relationships

It could be a romantic partner or a family member or even a co-worker. We are all intertwined in a wide variety of relationships. Your quality of life increases when these relationships are healthy and positive. The same goes for your relationship with yourself. Therapy is an ideal way to cultivate self-care and self-love.

6. Setting and Reaching Goals

Life becomes more exciting and meaningful when you have goals. This is, of course, easier said than done. What a difference it makes to have a skilled professional in your corner! Such a process can naturally begin by setting and attaining goals in therapy.

Your mental health therapist can help you transform your life in positive and healthy ways. So, why not set aside the societal stigma and reach out for support today?

Face-to-face counseling is available in Houston, Sugar Land and Florida.

We offer individual therapy, couples, and marriage counseling as well as career counseling and testing. We have comfortable, inviting office environments that are conveniently located.