Maybe it’s been awhile since you felt like yourself. Maybe you feel numb, or terribly sad.
Maybe your heart races with anxiety, your thoughts race, you have trouble sleeping, and trouble eating.
And maybe, because of these feelings, you feel alone. You don’t want to talk to your friends about it as they might not understand. Or, maybe you have tried to talk to your friends and you received advice that was not helpful.
It is very difficult to experience these concerns and feel like no one would truly understand. You can feel isolated which can make things even worse.
Individual Psychotherapy Can Help
At some point, you may have thought, or else someone else suggested, ‘maybe I need some help‘.
Help could mean a number of things, but when you’re feeling hopeless, overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, traumatized, or lost in addiction, one of the best things you could do is find a Psychologist or therapist and try individual therapy.
Benefits of Individual Therapy
It goes by many different names: therapy, counseling, psychotherapy, talk therapy, individual therapy. No matter what the title, it means one thing: you work one-on-one with a trained therapist in a safe, confidential, and supportive environment to help you gain awareness, support, strategies, and skills to feel better.
Individual therapy is sitting down with someone who’s gone through years of training and experience in order to help people who are struggling to feel better. We are trained to help people explore thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and experiences in order to gain a better understanding about themselves.
How Do I Know If I Can Benefit From Therapy
There are many different reasons that you might want to start seeing a therapist – you may have past trauma that you want to deal with, or an addiction that's been plaguing you, depression, anxiety, or you are grieving a loss. You may want to deal with difficulties in a relationship, or career challenges, work-life changes, or transitions that seem overwhelming.
If you’ve been feeling unhappy and discontent, stuck on the same problem that comes up again and again, or if you feel the need for some additional support, then this may be an opportunity to find a therapist that can assist you with these needs.
Shaking the Stigma of Therapy
Let’s be clear from the start – you’re not crazy. You’re not broken. There’s nothing inherently wrong with you.
Life can be difficult. Unexpected events can happen. Our moods and circumstances are constantly changing.
The crucial thing to keep in mind is that many of us work with therapists to help us see and discover things about ourselves that are very difficult to see from her own immediate perspective. Seeking to support does not mean that you’re "crazy" or less strong and resourceful than other people. It does mean that your proactive and intentional about how you live your life and relationships. It does mean that you have goals and are determined to find ways to live your life better.
How Individual Therapy Can Help You Feel Better
When you work with a trained mental health professional it can help you in many ways:
Learn New Insight About Your Life and Situation
A therapist can help you learn techniques to manage patterns of anxiety, depression, self-criticism, and other unhealthy thoughts and emotions.
Plus, when you talk about what you’re feeling and thinking with a neutral person who has no personal attachment to the outcome, you can gain new insights and uncover some of the underlying causes of what you are feeling and thinking.
Learn New Tools to Manage Your Emotions and Behavior
Sometimes there are parts of life that feel more difficult to handle than others. Have you ever come across a problem or situation that you simply don't know the best way to handle?
A therapist can help give you tools to deal with the situations that feel overwhelming or just plain confusing.
Improve Your Relationships
When you feel poorly your relationships can suffer. You may feel that you don't want others to see you down because you feel it could bring them down. You may avoid others when you're not feeling your best, or may fear that you may lash out at others when you're hurting. Friends and family may not understand these dynamics and could potentially feel hurt or rejected by your moods and actions.
Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, or helpless, is hard on all types of relationships. When you start working with a therapist, he or she can help you feel better and improve your relationships with others.
Feel More Empowered
Probably the best benefit about starting individual therapy is the feeling of taking back control over your life.
When you are immersed in anxiety, depression, or an addiction, it can feel like life is falling apart. You can feel stuck and not clear on whether or not you have choices. The benefit of working with a good therapist is clarifying where you do have choices and influence to change things for the positive. Sometimes, it's simply very difficult to see these things by ourselves. When you experience this support and empowerment, you can begin to feel more optimistic about your present circumstances and the choices for your future.
Find an Effective Therapist
If you feel like it's time to reach out and make things better, we'd be honored to customize our care to your specific needs. At Lakeshore Psychology Services, we offer a very private, aesthetically beautiful, safe, and supportive environment to assist you with your counseling needs. Please contact us to find out more about how we can help.
Contact us for a free consultation.