How is therapy effective when you (typically) only talk for one hour per week?
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You brush your teeth about an hour a week, how’s that effective?
Regular maintenance is good for our physical health as it is for our mental health. We don’t need to do one good thing all day to take care of ourselves, you just do a little to keep yourself in check.
Therapy is a tool *we* use. So I tell my therapist what I’m struggling with and what I want to change. She helps me figure out what makes most sense for me to work on first, and she gives me exercises or strategies (or both) I can use to try to make the progress I’m trying to make.
One of the most helpful things I learned in therapy was that I’m responsible for my choices – in relationships, at work, etc. When I’m being 100% responsible for me, I don’t struggle with resentment, for example. I get to feel more competent and therefore more confident. I don’t have anxiety that others “won’t come through,” anymore. And that *wasn’t* what I went for, lol. It was super important to figure that out before I could address the other stuff I wanted to change. I went in wanting everyone else to change, and therapy can’t do that.
Tl;dr: The most important work happens between sessions.
They give you homework, strategies to use in your daily life.
Its kinda like Physical Therapy. The PT may do some stuff that you can’t do on your own while in the session, but then they give you exercises, adaptive strategies, techniques for the outside world, and progress those as you keep coming back and getting better.
They give you homework, strategies to use in your daily life.
Its kinda like Physical Therapy. The PT may do some stuff that you can’t do on your own while in the session, but then they give you exercises, adaptive strategies, techniques for the outside world, and progress those as you keep coming back and getting better.
They give you homework, strategies to use in your daily life.
Its kinda like Physical Therapy. The PT may do some stuff that you can’t do on your own while in the session, but then they give you exercises, adaptive strategies, techniques for the outside world, and progress those as you keep coming back and getting better.
Imagine a bucket of water. Every day, you fill it up a little; a tiny sip at best with the occasional splash of something new. The water is stress and weird stuff you can’t properly identify, like a tiny toxic rubber duck. But every week, for just an hour, you study the water and pick out things that don’t belong. You pour them out with some of that water. It’s not much at first, but little by little, that water starts to get lower. Now your bucket isn’t as full, so you can manage it a little better. Then hopefully, you can use it to stop the water from being poured in as much, so your stressful little bucket is lighter in your heart.
It’s not much, it takes time, but it always helps.
Imagine a bucket of water. Every day, you fill it up a little; a tiny sip at best with the occasional splash of something new. The water is stress and weird stuff you can’t properly identify, like a tiny toxic rubber duck. But every week, for just an hour, you study the water and pick out things that don’t belong. You pour them out with some of that water. It’s not much at first, but little by little, that water starts to get lower. Now your bucket isn’t as full, so you can manage it a little better. Then hopefully, you can use it to stop the water from being poured in as much, so your stressful little bucket is lighter in your heart.
It’s not much, it takes time, but it always helps.
Imagine a bucket of water. Every day, you fill it up a little; a tiny sip at best with the occasional splash of something new. The water is stress and weird stuff you can’t properly identify, like a tiny toxic rubber duck. But every week, for just an hour, you study the water and pick out things that don’t belong. You pour them out with some of that water. It’s not much at first, but little by little, that water starts to get lower. Now your bucket isn’t as full, so you can manage it a little better. Then hopefully, you can use it to stop the water from being poured in as much, so your stressful little bucket is lighter in your heart.
It’s not much, it takes time, but it always helps.
It’s like taking music lessons. The hour a week is meant to give you direction, you have to put in the time outside to get the real benefits.
It’s like taking music lessons. The hour a week is meant to give you direction, you have to put in the time outside to get the real benefits.
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