Therapists aren’t people who you “pay to pretend to care about you”, therapists are people you pay to teach you how to care for yourself
Me: I am violently depressed.
Therapist: Oh! Sounds like you need to do YOGA! That will help!
Me: *signs up for yoga*
Me: *is violently depressed in Downward Dog*
Me: I hate myself and only see my flaws
Therapist: ok lets refocus on things you like about yourself. This week i want you to try and journal about good things you’ve for yourself and others.
Me: *does the homework* yeah but i still hate myself but feel bad cause i shouldn’t
Therapist: feeling like you shouldn’t hate yourself is a step in the right direction. Mental health is complex and isn’t something that will ~magically~ improve. We have a lot of hard work head of us but I’ll be here to help you.
TL;DR stop perpetuating the idea that therapy is unhelpful because the results are not instantaneous.
FUCKING THIS.
As a psychologist the amount of bullshit on this site, the amount of fucking dangerous bullshit on this site about how therapy is neurotypical bullshit and isn’t worth it and how exercise is pointless and good diet is pointless and that therapy homework is pointless DRIVES ME UP THE FUCKING WALL
Exercise is fucking important.
good diet is fucking important
therapy is fucking important.
WHY???because pills alone don’t help. they improve the hormonal imbalance (as does exercise and good diet which ALSO are a form of very real self care as your physical being is sorta connected to your mental one but go fucking figure right?), but guess what? the suicidal thoughts, the thoughts of harm, the thoughts of hating yourself, they’re still there. suicides actually increase when medicated. why? because suddenly you have the energy to fulfill thoughts of harming yourself. which is why you NEED therapy alongside pills.
it has taken you years, or decades to create your maladaptive thought processes and behaviours. that shit doesn’t disappear overnight. core beliefs don’t change overnight. these are the very fucking core of your personhood, your being and personality. THAT TAKES TIME TO CHANGE
STOP ACTING LIKE THERAPY IS SHIT IF IT DOESNT WORK IN TWO SESSIONS
^This!!!!!
The stigma that therapy isn’t worth it if you don’t feel better after the first couple sessions is such bullshit. It took me 8 months to tell my therapist anything personal but I kept going because I wanted to get better. I thought it was bs too when she kept telling me to think about other things and to distract myself when I have intrusive thoughts (not exact words whatsoever). Now it’s 2 and a half years later and I can successfully switch from thinking about all the ways I could kill myself to the song Slippery by Migos and immediately start laughing. You need to let it help you.
Y’all just need to find a good therapist and actually let them help, and help yourselves.
I needed to see this
Tag: Therapy
If you don’t have means to a therapist or mental health professional
Check out therapistaid.com. There’s worksheets there that you can download for free.
Of course it would be a lot more beneficial if you have a therapist to help you through it but not everyone has access to one.
It’s a free site where you can have free downloads of worksheets on many things.
If there’s something there that you think would be helpful, print it out and complete the worksheet on your own.
It’s hard to be accountable for yourself but at least there’s a way for you to have some insight and work on yourself.
Also if you use these in conjunction with the app Wysa
therapistaid is great, i get resources from there to use with my clients. here are some others
https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/
https://www.actmindfully.com.au/free_resources_worksheets,_handouts_and_book_chapters
Thank you.
I love having a therapist who is also a millennial because we communicate so fucking well like today she called something “so meta” like folks if you’re considering going to therapy I highly recommend the training clinic at your nearest university because those grad students have been the best therapist I’ve ever had and they always have a sliding pay scale and I literally pay nothing because I make less than 10,000 a year and get fantastic mental health care
#seeing a grad student is a great idea#because 1) they’re actually current and up to date on research and they’re gonna be all about EBP and give you the best most current treatme#and 2)#their caseload is fraction of any therapist’s in the real word so all of their focus is on YOU and they care about you so much!!!#ok not all of their focus is on you because a lot of their focus is also on being in school but all their CLINICAL focus is on you#you’re one of their first clients ever! they want to do their best!!#and 3) (I was gonna do two but I thought of a third)#they’re being supervised and scrutinized and held accountable#and yes this is coming from a speech language pathology grad student not a counseling grad student#but it is a kind of therapy#and I know the same thing applies to other clinical programs (@boxofpigeons)
I am intrigued. Filing this away for later.
As a millennial grad student therapist, I wish more people knew that free or low-cost, up-to-date treatment from closely supervised, highly motivated individuals may be readily available to them. If you’re looking for a training clinic, this website is a good place to start, but also googling “[your city] psychology training clinic” or “psychology training clinic near me” works. Any university with graduate programs in clinical or counseling psychology should have an associated clinic, often separate from their on-campus health/counseling centers (which are another good, typically free resource for anyone enrolled there).
It’s important to note that student therapists will usually leave after a year or so to continue their training at other sites, which can be difficult for individuals looking for long-term treatment. But if you’re in need of something shorter-term (which most of the empirically supported treatments for problems with mood, anxiety, phobias, and substance use are designed to be), or if you just want someone to talk to during a difficult time, your local training clinic might be just the thing!
Molly's Monsters 