There is a lot that people try to distress themselves and one of the most important methods are undergoing therapies. When you believe that something is not right with you, the easiest fix is undergoing therapy to overcome the symptoms of your distress.
There are people who carry a lot of myths about therapies and they believe that therapy is not intended for them. They are actually those who don’t even know if therapy will work for them or not. If you have ever attended motivational speaker events and you feel empowered the very next moment, you should believe that therapies will also work for you. A therapist is again a type of motivational speaker who brings in that change within you with repetitive events of counseling.
Therapy is a scientific process to teach your mind and practice how to change in the best possible way. It is a process of incorporating the best behavioural changes, building up a positive outlook towards life or relationship, relate your thoughts in the best possible manner to choose the best acts for better results. Therapists practising Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can practically help you work with your goals, measure your progress, and track results. You can consider therapy as a proven process to teach you how to manage your distress on your own.
How Does Therapy Work?
A therapist is not just a mentor who teaches you how to do things differently. The therapist listens to your problems and tries out the best possible solutions with proven scientific results to fix that problem. They are licensed people with proven ideas to sort out things practically.
A therapist is someone you can talk about your problem without any hitch. Some feel relaxed from day one while others question the efficacy of psychotherapy. Therapy changes the way you think, look at a scenario, deal with a problem, learn how to control your emotions, change your mood when you are anxious, or adapt to new changes in your behavioural process.
If you feel frustrated and hurt yourself, you take medication. Therapy is a lot different than healing a wound that you do with taking some pills. Therapy is healing the root cause of the wound.
Success in Therapy
Success in therapy has different means in different therapies for numerous purposes. There are around 200 types of mental health conditions and success for them are measured at different levels. If there are two different patients one is suffering from CBT and the other one is dealing with marital disturbance, they will undergo different therapies. It totally depends on their mental health condition and personal history. Symptoms, goals for treatment and their background of the disorder will always be different. The person with CBT surviving that night and seeing another day is the success for that therapy while in another case, patient returning home and living a happy married life ever is the success measured in the second case.
Sometimes therapists also use the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to measure the improvement of therapy to understand and monitor the symptoms of the sessions. But the end result is, you experience decreased symptoms, feel less anxious, sleep more, or experience reduced panic attacks in case of CBT.
Goals in Psychotherapy
Goals may vary in different psychotherapies as there are different levels and stages to measure the progress. The first level in psychotherapy is to make the patient realize that therapy will work for him and he gets comfortable for the therapy.
Eliminating every symptom with small sessions can be the goal of a psychotherapist in case of CBT. Making the patient listen to and practice therapy steps, getting proper sleep, not experiencing trauma, not encountering nightmares, bringing positiveness in thoughts, feeling calm and less sensitive can be strategic goals and achievements of a psychotherapist.
Changing the behaviour, pattern of thoughts, and replies in the Q&A sessions help in measuring the success rate of the therapy availed. Not only during the session but how the patient deals in the real world also matters while setting up new goals and measuring the success.
Also Read: How to Practice Self Forgiveness and Move on
Myths About Therapy Sessions
There are a lot of people who think negative about therapy or consider it useless. Their such thoughts are daunting for patients and put a negative impact. Have you heard people saying these lines?
Therapies doesn’t work!
I am good enough to solve my problem.
Therapy is for people with serious mental health issues.
Psychiatrists are for abnormal people with extreme mental health conditions.
Talking to a stranger about my problem will not help.
If I start therapy, I’ll need to do it forever.
Therapists can’t help!
Wrapping Up
Therapies are scientific ways of encouragement by professional experts to focus and divert your thought process towards a specific goal. It is a special bond between the therapist and the patient who sync and think in a specific direction to eliminate negativity and encourage positivity. Others can’t easily measure the success of therapy as it can be experienced but not described in words. A therapist can change the way you think and your outlook on life. Trust me, it really works!
