How is Therapy Helpful?

Let’s think about a messy closet.  Maybe there are clothes on the floor, the shoes are piled on the shelf, and if you open the door everything may come pouring out.  Therapy is like opening the closet door and taking everything out of the closet.  You may have an unorganized pile of clothes, shoes, accessories laying on the floor, but now you can start going through it.  You can decide what you are keeping, how to make sense of the closet, and how you are going to put it back in an organized way.  

 

Therapy can be hard (think about how you would feel with all the stuff on the floor).  This is the stage where you may explore and process trauma, discuss the role depression and anxiety has had on you, or maybe look inward to the things about yourself that you don’t like.  

 

Now, you  get to decide what you will keep (think about the clothes that you have decided you don’t want anymore).  Just like getting rid of clothes, it may be hard to part with some things- especially when there are emotional attachments or memories associated with it.  This may be the unhealthy coping skills that you don’t want to engage in, the toxic friend that puts you down, or the resentment that you have been holding onto.  

 

Now, you think about what you want to stay with you from your experiences,  (This is when you decide what goes back in the closet).  Maybe you realize how resilient you are or you recognize the friendships that have had a positive impact on you.  

 

Cleaning out a messy closet takes time and patience.  In therapy, we take time to process and understand our feelings and experiences.  The end result of both is a sense of relief.  You no longer have to dread opening the closet because you now know it is organized and filled with things you have carefully selected.