Six Signs that Now May Be a Good Time for Talk Therapy
By: Amy Butler Angell, MA LPCC EMDR
The decision to explore talk therapy is often a difficult and very personal decision. It’s daunting, walking into a room with a stranger and laying out your struggles, traumas, shame, and private thoughts and feelings. But the very gesture of taking the plunge toward emotional openness and vulnerability often signifies that start of very positive changes in one’s life- changes that can improve relationships, perspective, and overall functioning in the day to day. I wrote this article to speak to some of the big warning signs that individuals often experience that are accurate evidence that perhaps now is the time to begin exploring work therapeutic work with a trained counselor. I can’t speak for everyone, of course- all situations and circumstances are unique- but if you’re noticing any of these symptoms in your own life, talk therapy may be a great opportunity for you.
1) In the time leading up to an initial therapy session, individuals will often report that they’ve developed behaviors or habits that they find worrisome. This could be any myriad of behaviors, including increased substance abuse, reckless sexual behavior, self-injurious activities, a dramatic shift in eating habits, a lack of desire to participate in life, and many, many more. Often in accordance with these behaviors comes a perceived lack of control- a client may report that they are feeling as if their life is spinning out of their hands, and that despite the best of intentions, they can’t get a grasp on these behaviors. This may be a time when professional help would be a true asset to healing.
2) To follow the previous point, many clients enter therapy when their family or friends have expressed concern about their well-being, or about a certain behavior the client is exhibiting. Now, it’s important to note that therapy will not necessarily be successful when someone enters solely on the recommendation of a friend– the client needs to be well invested in the process, too. But nonetheless, the encouragement of family and friends often can alert a client that perhaps their life is more out of balance than they were aware.
3) A big sign that perhaps talk therapy might be beneficial is if the activities and hobbies that once brought you happiness, peace, or comfort are no longer doing so. A noticeable decrease in the ability to experience pleasure– clinically known as anhedonia- is one of the first signs that an individual is struggling.
4) If you’ve experienced a trauma and the thoughts and memories continue to haunt you, it may be beneficial to have a place to process through those memories and potentially work toward making some meaning of them. Many survivors of trauma hesitate here, due to shame, embarrassment, or difficulty surrounding sharing one’s personal experience of assault, abuse, or other devastation, but oftentimes sharing experiences with someone who is trained to understand trauma can really propel the healing process into forward motion. If you’re feeling stuck in your trauma, now may be a great time to seek help.
5) And speaking of feeling stuck… if your day-to-day life has you feeling like you’re in a rut, conversation with a therapist may provide you with the tools to dig yourself out.
6) And finally, if you’re ready to dig deep… then therapy may be for you. I threw this in as the last bullet point, because I want to be very clear: therapeutic work is not always easy. Your ways of thinking may be gently challenged, you may process things that don’t feel good, and there may be days where the healing process feels confusing and backward. But if you stick to it, and communicate honestly and transparently with a therapist with whom you feel comfortable, safe, and validated… then good things will come.
