After I’ve been searching for a therapist, I was reminded of how expensive it actually is. I was feeling proactive so I started looking into other people who have come across the same problem. Unfortunately and fortunately, I am in the time of the internet so I found tons of people with the same problem. As I’m browsing through random Reddit posts, I saw one that was titled “self-therapy”. Looking more into it, it seems to overlap the term “self-help”. I remember as a kid that it was taboo to be seen in the “self-help” section at libraries or to really talk about it. Maybe that’s why there’s a “new-term”? There doesn’t seem to be an exact definition or scientific research on the term “self-therapy”. However, there is more of a definition of “self-help”.
Self help can be defined as “the action or process of bettering oneself or overcoming one's problems without the aid of others especially : the coping with one's personal or emotional problems without professional help” (Merriam-Webster, 2023). Yes, I’m a nerd who just quoted the definition. I’m not in grad school for nothin. I am not a therapist. I am in a therapy based field though aka speech therapy. It has taught me a LOT about what therapy actually is and isn’t.
Any kind of therapy is hard. You are there to lead your client to the answer, to themselves. You are getting to know not just their impairment, but who they are as a person and how it effects their daily life. You are educating them and having an open conversation on what would work for them. And finally, you are simply connecting with them. To me, this is the biggest one and I would argue that you will not get anywhere if you do not take the time to get to know your client and build trust with them aka rapport.
Therapy will not be positive or pleasant all the time. From my scholarly resource of Instagram comments, someone shared on a post “I told my therapist how I am looking for a safe space. She told me there is nothing in the world that is a safe space. However, I am here to help you create a safe space within yourself.” It is also not a friendship. It’s not the same as venting to a friend. The last and most important point is-therapy does NOT fix you or make your problems go away. It will not help you if you do not put in the time and effort on your own and take the skills that your learn in therapy and generalize it into your daily life. You are responsible for YOU.
That last point was probably the biggest reason I’m going to hold off on therapy. Me taking the time to relearn about myself is going to take me much farther than if I jump into therapy with no intentions. I also don’t want to spend that much money on therapy if I haven’t even taken the time to put in the work or some kind of plan of what I want to do a learn. I do think I will 100% go back to therapy. The new plan is to make some physical and mental health goals, see how they go and go from there.
Kindly, Kat