Paloma Rodríguez: "Ask for psychological help has not yet been normalized"

Do you know someone who is embarrassed to say that they attend psychotherapy? Probably, even if you don't know anyone like this, the idea that someone has this attitude towards this kind of services will not seem strange to you.

However, it would be strange to meet someone who does not want to admit that they have ever had surgery, or that they go to the gym, for example. What is this about? After all, all these activities have to do with strengthening one's own well-being and state of health understood in a broad sense.

In this interview with the psychologist Paloma Rodriguez, we will talk precisely about this topic: what is it and why does the stigma of going to psychological therapy arise?

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

Interview with Paloma Rodriguez Calvo: the stigma of going to therapy

General Health Psychologist Paloma Rodriguez Calvo is a psychologist and Director of the Reinvent Yourself Growth Center, located in Bilbao. In this interview, he talks about the historical stigmatization of going to psychotherapy and the way in which it has been weakened, from her professional experience over the years years.

@professional (2061937, "Interested in professional psychological help?")

Where do you think the stigma associated with those who went to the psychologist has historically come from?

I believe that the stigma of going to the psychologist arises, without a doubt, as a result of the distorted image that has been presented throughout the last decades of mental health added to the lack of information and persistent importance in this area throughout the time.

According to this traditional image, a person who needed psychological help is someone who has become "mad" or "sick" losing their minds and requiring hospitalization. psychiatric hospital, or an individual with sufficiently tragic and dramatic problems that prompt them to go to therapy as a last resort because there was no other option to help them calm down. your discomfort.

This image has come to us through films and fictional stories that have been nourished by moments in the history of psychology in which this science had just taken off in the scientific field, such as the first psychoanalytic theories or in the most esoteric parts of psychology that have little or nothing to do with the reality of psychotherapy current.

From what you have seen, is this stigma still very present in our society today?

The stigma is still present, although we have to admit that little by little it is being broken, but it is still rooted in today's society. You still hear comments from both young people and adults like: "You're crazy", "You're a psychologist/psychiatrist", "You're sick in the head"... Apparently innocuous comments that we make unconsciously and seem to have no relevance but that continue to perpetuate the stigma of seeking psychological help because it is understood that it is for people who are "crazy".

Nowadays, asking for psychological help has not yet been normalized, probably due to the lack of visibility and importance that has been given to this field over time and due to the present general lack of education emotional.

Luckily the stigma is beginning to break. More and more people are speaking freely about psychological and emotional health as an important and fundamental part of our health; if we consider it in an integral way (according to the World Health Organization, integral health is the state of physical, emotional and social well-being of an individual). However, there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of normalization and access for the population to receive this type of help.

What implications does it have for the mental health of the population that some people feel ashamed at the possibility of going to therapy?

If people are ashamed to ask for help, they won't ask for it, it's very simple. What happen? That the need for psychological help present in the population is denied, so it cannot be solved since shame implies the non-demand of it. If the demand is not carried out, it will not be invested in offering the necessary resources that this population needs for their mental health.

The shame at the possibility of going to therapy is not only the responsibility of those who feel it, but also of the entire population that perpetuates the idea that we always have to be well and that, if we are mentally or emotionally ill, we should be able to solve it alone.

The use of comments that invalidate the fact of asking for help only leads us to a population that claims to always be happy and content but that suffers in silence and does not have the resources to take care of their psycho-emotional health, when it would be convenient to seek professional support that would benefit them in this sense.

Do you think that if the population were more informed about what psychotherapy is, this would be a totally normalized type of service in all layers of society? Or does the amount of information have no influence on this, and is it a rather irrational phenomenon?

I have no doubt that if there were more information about psychotherapy it would normalize much more, but I think that information alone is not worth it. It is also necessary to give visibility and accessibility to this resource.

In other words, provide information to the population and show the normality of the people who come to therapy and, when older, provide greater ease of access to the population. All this: information, visibility and accessibility would help integrate a new paradigm in which psychology takes the importance it deserves and breaks with the old irrational beliefs that paralyze us when asking aid.

In other areas of health, such as the doctor, people do not have doubts about what to do when their foot or head hurts. However, when we deal with psychological or emotional issues, there are many doubts as to whether psychological therapy will be the solution and how psychological support really works.

From my perspective there is a lack of information not only about the science of psychology but also about what therapy is. psychological and most importantly, what are the reasons that can lead us to go to therapy or why we can consider asking for help psychological, since as I mentioned before, there is a tendency to believe that psychotherapy is only for those already "insane" or completely lost.

For this reason, reporting from there should be the priority of those who advocate for comprehensive health that does not neglect the psycho-emotional part of the human being, so important for their well-being.

Due to the great lack of information, psychological therapy continues to be stigmatized and seems something of a mystery. However, it is not only the lack of information that prevents people from coming to ask for this type of support. We must not forget the irrational part of the human being who finds it difficult to ask for help because he starts from the idea that "alone we can with everything"; however, data on the high incidence of psychological disorders in the current population as depression and anxiety show that indeed we cannot handle everything and show us that, perhaps, psychotherapy can be a great ally.

Would you say that in the new generations of young people it is normally assumed that every person may eventually need professional psychological support?

From my point of view, I believe that the young population and the new generations are much more prepared and open to accepting mental health as a fundamental part of their well-being, which helps their standardization. But sadly, it is still not assumed with absolute normality to go to psychological therapy.

Younger generations are more familiar with psychology and its great benefits compared to the older population, but the lack of Mental health information also includes this segment of the population and there continues to be a great reluctance to seek psychological support from young people and even among those who continue to perpetuate the idea that psychotherapy is only for when you are already very bad, very bad and there is nothing else that can help you.

It is true that the young-adult population is the one that is most aware of the fact that anyone may need this type of support at any given moment in their lives and sees it as something normal. However, when a young person asks for psychological help, there is a general tendency to be ashamed share it with their peers, something that shows that there is still a lot of work to be done even in this segment of the population.

What can psychologists specialized in caring for patients do to help speed up this normalization process of psychotherapy and permeate all areas of society?

The first thing we must do is educate those around us in the normality of going to therapy, it is that is, encourage our colleagues and friends to ask for help when we feel it could be beneficial for us they. This may seem like a small thing, but nevertheless, little by little the idea expands helping more people understand that being accompanied by a psychologist is something really very positive and beneficial for the health.

Secondly, from a more professional position, we need to break with the surreal and mysterious image that has been created of psychotherapy. For this, it is important to provide quality information about psychology in a simple and understandable way, breaking with complicated terms when speaking with the general population so that therapy is no longer understood as something highly medicalized, designed exclusively for people with clearly diagnosable disorders and/or "sick". That is, to present therapy as an accessible resource for anyone who can benefit from psycho-emotional support and wants to improve in this part of their life.

As psychotherapists we need to adapt to the changes and current demands of the population, continue our work to give more and more visibility to this area and claim our space as health professionals in centers dedicated to ensuring the health of citizens (hospitals, outpatient etc…).