Therapy: Do You Need Therapy Or Do You Need To Change Your Environment?

If someone came to see that their mood has dropped, are experiencing heightened levels of anxiety and/or that they are not as confident as they usually are, they might think about reaching out for external support. Fortunately, they will have had the ability to detach from their experience.

As if they didn’t have this ability, they may have just put up with what was taking place and ended up feeling even worse as time went by. Their experience of life would change but it would just become what is normal.
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The Next Step

Once they have found a therapist to work with, it might not be long until they have a session lined up. When the time comes for their appointment, it could start off with them talking about what they are going through.

If their mood has dropped, they could say that they have felt low and even depressed recently. Or, if they have been anxious, they could say that they have found it hard to relax and have spent a lot of time on edge.

A Number of Symptoms

Then again, one could say that they haven’t felt as good about themselves lately and that they have found it hard to take action. Conversely, one may struggle with all three of these things.

Consequently, it will be a challenge for them to function at their best and to live a fulfilling life. Even so, at least they won’t have allowed what is going on to take them out completely.

Moving Forward

From here, the person who they are working with could ask them to talk about the thoughts and feelings that they have been having. They may even ask them to talk about how they have been behaving.

If so, and after one has opened up about all this, this could be a time when they will end up changing what is taking place in their mind and altering their behaviour. They could be told that their thoughts define how they feel, so changing their thoughts will be the key.

A New Life

After they have had a number of sessions, and they have applied what they have learnt during these sessions, they may find that they start to experience life differently. So regardless of what was going on for them before, it will no longer be as much of a problem or it could simply be a thing of the past.

One could be amazed at how different their life is; it could be as if they are a totally different person. One will then have taken action and they will have benefited from doing something about what they were going through.

A Different Experience

However, although this is what could take place, there is also the chance that this approach won’t last. One’s life will then have changed, only to return to how it was before they started having therapy.

Alternatively, changing what is taking place in their mind might not have an impact on them whatsoever. One can then be in a position where they will have spent a fair amount of money to change their life but they won’t have got anything back.

A Different Approach

At this point, one can end up feeling even worse than they felt before. One way of looking at this would be to say that there must be a hidden benefit to one experiencing life in this way or their life would have changed.

Another way of looking at it would be to say that they are living around certain people and spending tine in certain places that are having a negative effect on them. Thus, it is not that they need to change what is taking place inside them; it is that they need to spend time around different people and to no longer spend time in the same places.

Important Changes

If this is the case, it won’t matter what they do to their mind as the problem won’t be inside them. Also, having sessions might give them the impression that they are doing something but they will simply be wasting their time and their money (that’s if they have to pay for their therapy).

Taking this into account, they will need to look into what they need to do to change where they spend their time and who they spend it with. If there is resistance to doing this, it might be a good idea to look into why this is.

Getting To the Root

During this time, they won’t be focusing on what is taking place in their head; they will be looking into what is taking place a deeper level – in their body. So, they will be looking into why they are living in a way that is harming them.

What they may find is that they have a fear of being harmed and/or abandoned. Therefore, even though living in this way is not serving them, they believe that their very survival would be put at risk if they were to change their life.

Trauma

It might not be completely accurate to say that this just something that they fear and is coming from a belief, though, as they could carry the trauma of being harmed and/or abandoned. This could show that their early years were not very nurturing.

What took place may be in the past, but their mind and body will carry the effects of what took place. This will show that even if one is not aware of something that is inside them, it won’t stop it from having an impact on their life.

Awareness

If one can relate to this, they may need to work with a therapist or a healer who can assist them in working through this trauma. Another option would be for them to resolve this trauma using something called Somatic experiencing or TRE. 

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Oliver JR Cooper
http://www.oliverjrcooper.co.uk