Lessons from Therapy

I started going to therapy about half a year ago. My initial reason for going was to be able to have my own support in supporting my partner on his mental health journey. Quickly, however, I discovered that I had a lot of deep seeded emotional and mental issues to work on myself. It’s funny the way the universe works.

I had toyed around with the idea of going to therapy for a while, but I don’t think I would have started going if it hadn’t been for my partner. Our situation gave me a strong enough reason to go.

One of the coolest things about therapy is that I had never before received a truly objective perspective on some deeply personal issues. Everyone I shared my issues with had somewhat of a personal stake in their response. Now, with a therapist, I had someone who didn’t know me too well and could give me a very objective and well backed perspective. That alone has been invaluable.

I’ve also found that a great first step to healing is to be able to talk about what happened. There were events in my childhood that I never really talked seriously about until now. Even getting the words out and stringing them into a cohesive narrative has aided tremendously in my journey of healing.

Therapy has helped me to expand my emotional palette and to verbalize my emotions. Last week, I realized that when I cry, I’m not only sad. I’m more connected to the world now, and sometimes I cry out of happiness and gratitude! I am able to acknowledge the complexity of my emotions now instead of slapping a “sad” or “mad” label on them. I am a complex human being with such beautiful depth.

I am so grateful for the healing and self discovery I’ve gained from therapy so far, and I hope that you consider going to therapy yourself. It’s a great way to become aware of where you are and consciously start to steer yourself to where you truly would like to be.