3 reasons to see a psychologist

Hello friends!

Yesterday our dear friend Rosana Augusto published the text about The healing process for CG Jung. Today I would like to talk to you about the top 3 reasons for therapy with a psychology professional.

Unfortunately, even today, many people associate psychology and the need for therapy with madness. That is, if someone goes to a psychologist it is because they are crazy or have a mental illness. Of course, this conception is ignorant, however, we professionals in the area have to publicize more the benefits of a psychotherapeutic treatment. It is with this aim, therefore, that I write this text.

Since college, I have sympathized with the conceptions of humanistic psychology regarding the clinic. For example, instead of talking about a patient, humanists talk about a client. For humanism, too, there is no classification of mental illnesses as we see in other lines. I mean, we don’t talk about neurosis, psychosis, disorder of this or that. On the contrary, humanistic psychology seeks with the treatment what is called self-realization, the ability of each one to find their own path and fulfill themselves as a unique person.

And it is precisely this point that I would like to comment on here. Many people who go to therapy want to have a diagnosis. As a label to define who they are. “I am bipolar” or “I have post-traumatic stress disorder” or “I have panic disorder”. At first, it might even be a relief to find an explanation, a definition of one’s feelings. But in a second moment, this can cause paralysis and make the person fixate on their own symptom.

That’s why I always prefer to talk about suffering. Each person has their suffering. This suffering can be fleeting and represent a phase of life or a period or last longer. So, the main reason people go to the doctor’s office is to try to get rid of suffering.

We know that therapy is effective. It is evident that each case is different, but in general we can say that in a few sessions understanding the causes, the reasons, taking responsibility, in short, understanding the why and what for of the suffering experienced causes the suffering to decrease or decrease. until disappear.

Thus, it is frequent to find people who come to the office with a complaint, for example, fights in a love relationship. In some sessions, the initial complaint simply disappears and other issues take center stage in the sessions.

Reason 2 – Self-knowledge

At first it may seem strange to imagine that we have to consult with a psychology professional to be able to know ourselves. But psychotherapy is like a safe place, enclosed by professional secrecy, and one of the few places in our modern world where we can talk without being interrupted or having to agree or disagree with others’ advice.

In other words, in our society we learn thousands of information, knowledge, truths that are external. It is useful to know Newton’s binomial or Rococo movement or Bohr’s atom, without a doubt everything we learn at school is useful and very interesting. However, all this is external. It has nothing to do with who we are, what we feel and think…

Therefore, it is not uncommon to find people who have no idea who they are or what they want. What happens most, however, is that we have a part of ourselves that is totally unconscious. With this, therapy takes the place of the possibility of self-knowledge. We can go to therapy to clarify ideas about which profession to pursue (in Professional Guidance), whether it is better to start or end a certain relationship, even religious issues reappear insofar as the search for self-knowledge is also the search for the meaning of life.

Reason 3 – Create a Skill

A while ago, we published a text about the difference between therapy and coaching. Coaching (literally – training) is more modern, so to speak, and has become a rage in the United States. Despite being different, I would dare say that the therapy is more complete and, in fact, it has been developing training jobs – how to create a new skill – for decades.

For example, someone may seek therapy to be able to lead a team (leadership skill) or to speak better in public or to be more dedicated and persevering to write a monograph, cbt or dissertation. Anyway, this third reason is very specific. It has nothing to do with overcoming a sentimental difficulty and does not have such a broad meaning as self-knowledge. Creating an X skill makes the therapy have a target, a focus, a goal. When we reach that goal, the therapy loses its raison d’être and the sessions are discontinued.

To complement the text, I would like to remind those who have already read it or recommend it to those who haven’t read it, our text 9 reasons to go to therapy

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