For many people who have never undergone therapy, or for those who have had an unsatisfactory experience, a question often arises: “Why should I undergo therapy?”
The type of service that a therapist offers may seem strange or even incomprehensible at first. When we visit other healthcare professionals, such as a dentist, things are much clearer: there will be a physical change, in this case, to our teeth, which we can observe in the mirror and be sure that we have left their office with what we paid for, after all. However, when you leave a psychotherapy session, you have no physical parameter to evaluate the result of your investment. You might think, “Well, I can try to check if I’m feeling better.” But that’s where things get worse: after a first psychotherapy session, you may feel even worse than before. “Well…”, one might be think, “it really doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
Right? Not exactly. Therapy works. There are several different reasons for a treatment to work, so let me outline some of them here.
The therapist relies on a science, psychology, to provide patients with the best available help for emotional and interpersonal difficulties. The way of thinking about and approaching these issues undergoes the scrutiny of scientific research, which helps us to continually improve the theories and tools that assist and to discard or reformulate those that do not produce the expected results. Several scientific studies have demonstrated that depression, anxiety, stress, grief, among other forms of suffering decrease to a significant degree with therapy. Therefore, the claim that psychotherapy works is not merely an opinion, it is a scientific fact.
The therapist-client relationship is a very singular one. A therapist is not there to tell you what you should do or how you should feel about a specific situation, something you would expect from a friend or a family member. They will not tell you that you should stay or leave a relationship or job, that it would be the right thing to do. Sometimes we feel so overwhelmed by external standards and opinions we often get lost in it. Therapy, then, is an opportunity for us to listen to our own thoughts and emotions and find our own path in life.
Psychotherapy is a specialized form of help for emotional and interpersonal relationship problems. It works and we know it. It can be one of the best investments you will ever make. After all, it’s hard to measure the value of being at peace with oneself.
