Season 2, Episode 2: How to 'Therapy' for the Rest of Us

That Social Work Lady

In Season 1, I encouraged you to find a therapist and actively involve yourself in purposeful healing. I mean we were in a pandemic, quarantined for months. Our whole person was ripe and ready to work through all the big ugly things that were weighing us down and holding us back.
And according to the numbers, you went. The rate at which Americans started therapy over the last year surpasses all other years in this decade! The idea of therapy as a tool to support growth and help us as individuals and family to process emotional pain or reorient our relationships so that they are healthier has caught on.
So if the pandemic quarantines brought your mental health strain to the forefront causing you and your life to unravel, you are/were not alone. Millions of people experienced a similar 'wake up.' Absent from the 'busyness' of our pre-pandemic life, we were left to ourselves which revealed that our well-being was not in fact 'well.'
Millions flocked to therapy in an effort to fix the parts of them they felt were broken. Unfortunately, as many people who ran to therapy to get support nearly just as many left. Now people leave therapy for a plethora of reasons. But what I've learned is that mostly people leave therapy because they don't really understand how the therapeutic relationship works.
In this episode, I provide a few tips on how to build a relationship with a mental health profession. I begin with the premise that although you will be in a relationship with your therapist, it is not a friendship. With that in mind, there are different rules and responsibilities that apply to the relationship. Here I highlight what those difference are.
For more resources on 'how to therapy' check out these resources:
https://psychcentral.com/lib/therapists-spill-tips-for-making-the-most-of-therapy#next-steps

https://www.talkspace.com/blog/what-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-about-how-therapy-actually-works/

https://www.self.com/story/what-to-talk-about-in-therapy/amp