I have been very open about admitting to suffering from anxiety and depression, however over the past few years I have been in different forms of therapy and found it extremely useful. In this post I am going to share some of the ways in which therapy has helped me.
It is important to remember that this has taken place over a few years, using a combination of therapy through the NHS as well as private therapy.
The types of therapy I have had
I have taken part in talking therapy, CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and hypnotherapy.
I find all three of them extremely useful! BetterHelp counselling offer a few different therapy options for you to choose from.
What a therapy session is like
It is fair to say that each session is different.
Therapy isn’t about someone giving you the answers. You can’t go into a session with a big decision to be made and have someone else tell you the solution.
Therapy will help you to take something apart, a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, and start to rebuild it.
Your therapist will help you to see something you have overlooked and bring your attention to it.
This is applied to real life situations that you find yourself in.
Sometimes I have gone to a session thinking that I didn’t really need therapy that day, then unpicked or found a massive trauma from my childhood.
Regular sessions
I found regular therapy sessions really useful. I had somewhere to be on a regular basis, which is really good when I am feeling depressed and don’t want to do anything. It gave me a reason to get up, showered and dressed.
The most common sessions I had were every fortnight, meaning that I had enough time between sessions to work on anything that we talked about the previous session. It also gave me a chance to put any new techniques I had learned in to practice.
One off sessions
Since being ‘discharged’ from therapy, my therapist has reminded me that I can have a one off session as needed to help me to navigate everything going on in my life at the moment.
2020 has been hard for so many of us. I was also diagnosed with cancer at the start of lockdown so I find myself having a lot of intrusive thoughts and anxiety. Knowing that I can pick up with a one off session whenever I need it is great. Especially if I have something difficult to figure out.
What I have learned from therapy
Everyone is different, and what they need from therapy will differ.
I have learned how to control my anxiety a bit more, as well as identifying things that trigger my anxiety. For example, if I work late into the night a few times a week this will trigger my anxiety. Instead I have learned to set myself some boundaries.
I have also learned that responsibility for things doesn’t just fall to me, and I can ask others for help.
I have learned how to identify intrusive thoughts and separate them from facts.
Overall it has been really useful!
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