7 tips for when you go to therapy

When one attends therapy, it is clear that it is because he is in a complicated situation that he does not know how to handle himself and asks for help to achieve it. Therefore, it is taken for granted that the person is usually receptive to that change and wants to go through that transition towards greater well-being. But still there are things that come up during therapy that can be better managed. These details can speed up or slow down the therapeutic process.

• Related article: "The 8 benefits of going to psychological therapy"

Tips for when you go to therapy

Below I am going to present several ideas and tips that can help you in your therapy and in your relationship with your therapist.

1. Therapy is teamwork

You have the information and the therapist has the tools, do not expect the psychologist to do your part, or try to do his. Many times there are things that are not counted in therapy because the person directly dismisses them as irrelevant or unimportant and sometimes they are key to getting to the bottom of the problem. Therefore, try not to save information to your psychologist, everything you tell him about yourself can be useful so that he can help you and can get a better idea of ​​how to manage your symptoms. The psychologist is not a fortune teller, you have the keys even if you don't know it.

In the same way, do not pretend to have all control over the therapy, the psychologist knows how to help you, and therefore let yourself be guided in certain things or you do not intend to solve everything by yourself, he or she knows that there are things that you cannot do alone and will accompany you in the trip.

2. Therapy guides you, but no one can make your way for you

Links to the previous point, but it is important. The psychologist will not or should not make important decisions for you, or tell you what to do, just guide you so that you yourself can draw the conclusions and the answers to your questions.

3. Change can be scary, even if it is something desired

As much as it is difficult to understand this because we are having a hard time at some point, if we have been in a problem for a long time, we have also made a habit and a mental structure around it. As much as someone hates being sad and depressed all day, that may be their comfort zone for years, so even if you want to, breaking with it suddenly is going to produce vertigo. You have to understand this kind of defense mechanisms, respect them and give them their time so that they can give in and the changes are made gradually and acceptable.

4. Not everything is going to be scaled up and getting better

It is very exciting to see that I am moving forward and every day it is a little better. But unfortunately this is not usually the case. The most common is that you advance a little and go back a little. I take 3 steps and go back 2, forward 5 and under 3. It is part of the process of being well and It is necessary to count on it so that when it happens we do not fall apart and we can move on.

5. Only the one who gives up fails

Persistence and patience with ourselves is key to be able to continue in therapy, which are usually hard and to be able to overcome what has led us to it.

6. Starting therapy does not mean that I am defective or have something wrong

Just as a person cannot know everything and when he has a fault in the bathroom he calls the plumber, there are certain things that simply by having them too close to us are not easy for us front facing. Everybody has problems, painful deaths of family members, events that could affect their lives... Asking for help to handle this type of thing can save a lot suffering and of course it is a sign of great strength because I am willing to change, learn and improve, facing many times my own ghosts.

7. Things that have happened to me are important to me

We know that there are people who have suffered a lot in life, and who had very difficult situations, and Sometimes we do not feel entitled to complain simply because we have not had such experiences so hard. But the emotional wounds that we each have have hurt each of us and have affected us in some way, and recognize their importance can help us open up in therapy and go deeper without judging what happens to us.

For example, sometimes in therapy people talk about how their parents have been overprotective, and that this has given them a great complex of worthlessness or feeling like children as adults, which makes it difficult for them to make decisions or feel safe to handle life problems everyday; but at the same time they say that they cannot complain, because their parents have not beaten them, nor have they punished them harshly. It is true, but their wounds are others that are affecting them, and each one can and should handle their own.

In conlusion

I hope that these little keys help you in each one of the therapy processes that you can go to in the future. Consistency is a virtue, and when something hurts, you just have to fight until it stops hurting.