I've been to therapy off and on throughout my life, but this is the first time I've stuck with it for more than a few sessions. (Still, it's only been about two months.)
While I am not familiar with my therapist's specific methods, I did research psychologists, and finally picked my therapist based on her experience and theoretical alignments.
I think I find her helpful mostly because I "believe" in therapy. I consider myself to be very conscious of my inner workings, but I was aware that I was hitting a wall that I felt need to be breached. For me, it helped to go to someone and say, "These are my walls, I need to see what's behind them. Please make sure I bust them down, even if I'm hesitant to do so." I'm still doing all the work, but I kind of think of it like a memory device. Telling someone to remind me to do something almost always causes me to remember to do that thing anyway. Knowing there is someone there to hold me to what I've said I do is what helps me, I think. The hardest part for me was making myself go in the first place.
I think because I pay her, because she's a professional, and because she doesn't have the bias of my friends, that's why I trust her to keep me accountable for my development in a way I don't trust my friends to. My friends are too intimately involved with these walls I'm trying to break down, and I think I often don't expect them to tell me the truth about my character because they care for me and don't want to hurt my feelings.
no subject
While I am not familiar with my therapist's specific methods, I did research psychologists, and finally picked my therapist based on her experience and theoretical alignments.
I think I find her helpful mostly because I "believe" in therapy. I consider myself to be very conscious of my inner workings, but I was aware that I was hitting a wall that I felt need to be breached. For me, it helped to go to someone and say, "These are my walls, I need to see what's behind them. Please make sure I bust them down, even if I'm hesitant to do so." I'm still doing all the work, but I kind of think of it like a memory device. Telling someone to remind me to do something almost always causes me to remember to do that thing anyway. Knowing there is someone there to hold me to what I've said I do is what helps me, I think. The hardest part for me was making myself go in the first place.
I think because I pay her, because she's a professional, and because she doesn't have the bias of my friends, that's why I trust her to keep me accountable for my development in a way I don't trust my friends to. My friends are too intimately involved with these walls I'm trying to break down, and I think I often don't expect them to tell me the truth about my character because they care for me and don't want to hurt my feelings.