When you think of therapy, you may think of an intense and intimidating process strictly for people who struggle with mental illness. But there are countless styles and settings for therapy, which means there's something out there for anyone.
In fact, there are more people who are benefiting from therapy than you might think. According to a survey from the American Psychology Association, 27% of Americans have received treatment or therapy from a mental health professional. Here are just a few reasons why you may want to look into joining them, even if you don't believe you have a mental illness.
It can help you learn to love yourself.
Therapy promotes tools that can improve your relationship with yourself and your brain, something that everyone can benefit from.
"Therapy can help you fall madly in love with yourself, and in turn make you a magnet for healthy relationships," Tristan Coopersmith, psychotherapist and owner of the women's sanctuary Life Lab, told INSIDER.
It allows you to speak to some objective about your problems.
When you're talking to someone you trust about your problems, they will likely have some kind of a personal stake in it.
A therapist, however, doesn't have any preconceived notions about you nor any personal stake. You can trust them to keep your secrets and allow you to speak freely, letting you get as objective an opinion as possible.
"As a long-term traveler (on the road since June 2014) and remote worker, my therapist is a really key part of maintaining my self-care," writer Katherine Conaway told INSIDER. "She's an objective audience to my concerns, daily challenges, and relationship difficulties (romantic, family, and otherwise), as well as the more philosophical questions I think about as a millennial finding my place in the world."
It helps make the good things in your life great.
Therapy doesn't always have to be about negative things. In many cases, talking about the relationships and things in your life that already make you happy can allow you to be even happier with them, Coopersmith told INSIDER.
Therapy provides a judgment-free zone, so that you can talk about small issues you may be having in healthy relationships and learn to overcome them more easily, thus making those good things, great.
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