Why Should You Visit a Psychotherapist?

    Even when things in your life seem to be going well, there is still room for enhanced self-understanding. Loved ones and friends can offer good advice at times but their feedback will be biased based on the lens that they see you through and the expectations they have for you. Besides giving you more objective analysis, psychotherapy may give a chance to explore your thought and feeling patterns to identify the self-limiting beliefs and patterns you have unconsciously accepted as true and are acting upon.

   When there has been a traumatic event,  people sometimes shut down or numb their emotions as a self-protective strategy. These repressed emotions have the potential to influence future behaviour for years after the event has passed (Van Der Kolk, 2014). You may not think you need therapy at the time of the incident, or maybe you did want therapy and did not have the chance to receive it. There comes a point when you realize that you are having irrational expectations and reactions without knowing why. The longer you keep silent about the trauma, the more it affects your mind and body.  The stigma around mental health may never disappear on a global scale but I am hopeful that people who may have never considered psychotherapy are becoming more open to hearing about the long-term costs of silence.