Benefits of Individual Therapy

You’re thinking about doing therapy. Things have been hard. You’re feeling tired, stuck, unmotivated, bitter, down on yourself, and overall lousy. You want thing to change and feel you need the support of a therapist, but not completely convinced. You’re on the fence for seeing a therapist one-on-one. Here are some possible benefits from individual therapy to consider.

Gain More Self-Awareness

It’s interesting how little we recognize in ourselves. We all have patterns that play out in our relationships (work, friends, family). We have patterns in how we treat ourselves. And a lot of it happens so quickly and effortlessly that we don’t even recognize it happening.

Talking to a therapist can put a lens to highlight the things you are doing so you can make the decision on whether or not it’s benefiting you. Instead of being reactive, you can be proactive. It is pretty empowering to be making decisions that is promoting your health and wellbeing.

Feeling Less Out Of Control With Your Feelings

One of the reasons people go to therapy is because they feel things so intensely. Therapists can help with this by pointing out patterns and thoughts and beliefs that contribute to your feelings. There is no such thing as a bad feeling, but there are definitely things that you may be doing that are making things feel more intense. You may be shoving feelings down and so they keep popping back up. You may be putting yourself down or shaming yourself for feeling a certain way, which just adds more fuel to the flames. Your therapist can help you out by providing you support, validation, and challenging/exploring what’s going on so you can feel less out of control.

Feel More Connected To Yourself

I feel like this is a pattern in what I’m saying… but I digress. Going to individual therapy will help you feel more connected with yourself. As mentioned before, you gain awareness and become more compassionate with your feelings which will lead to you feeling more connected with yourself. You will have a better idea of how to use your feelings and thoughts as data for what’s going on in the environment and in yourself rather than as an inconvenience. Through this connection with yourself, you can honor your needs and feelings instead of neglect and shame them.

What do you think about some of these benefits to individual therapy?