Therapy Defined
I’m going to let you in on a secret. Laying on the couch in a therapist’s office is really just a myth. No one ever lays down and talks to the ceiling with the therapist out of view, an image conjured in so many textbooks and pop culture imagery. I hope you aren’t disappointed.
There can be an elusiveness around therapy. For so many, the idea of therapy can seem pretty mysterious or scary or intimidating or intrusive. Or maybe there is this idea that therapy is just for people that “have issues” or are “crazy.”
In reality, therapy is a practice that can benefit anyone. We all have a brain and we all have mental health, no matter the state of health it resides in. Therapy is simply a place in which we can tend to our mental health and our emotions the way we would with any other part of our body and health status. Ideally, you wouldn’t only go to the dentist if you had a cavity or needed a root canal. You would be engaging in regular maintenance to ensure the health of your teeth. Therapy is no different and your brain is no different. Your brain is a part of your body and needs care and attention in the same way as any other part of your body does.
Therapy can look many different ways. It can look like a supportive process in which are seeking greater insight into yourself and your emotions. It can be a place to process past trauma or painful experiences. It can be a place to provide assistance during the time of a stressful transition or a challenging moment in your relationship. It can help you learn more about your emotions and what causes you to feel the way you do about certain things. It can help to teach you to be a more effective communicator about your feelings, enhancing your relationships in the process. It can be a place where you get to just be heard, validated, and listened to without anyone needing anything else from you.
In so many ways, your therapist can serve as a sounding board and a mirror that will reflect back to you what they are hearing and seeing in you.
At The Haven Wellness Center, we are happy to provide support in any one of these areas. We welcome people into our practice for many different reasons and want to serve and support you to the best of our ability, no matter what your goals are. We approach our work from a perspective of empowerment and compassion, joy and safety. We never view mental health challenges as something being wrong with you. Rather, we consider it through the lens considering what must have happened in your life to create such pain and struggle.
Life can be so hard and create such pain. It can also be beautiful and provide moments of great celebration. No matter where you are in your journey or what the current season is holding for you, we would be honored to support you and help you work to greater self-actualization, greater insight, greater emotional intelligence, or to a place where any effects of trauma you have survived is resolved. We are ready when you are.
Until we see you,
Jessica & The Haven Team
