An Ode to Therapists
The embrace of therapy is an act of kindness. Therapy may be viewed as an extension of God’s hand, a genuinely caring human with a profound talent that at the same time has had hours beyond hours of training.
What we can learn from therapists besides the obvious.
Quote:
“The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no one recipe for living that suits all cases.”- Carl Jung
New Yorkers are known for being many things: fast walkers, sleek talkers, workaholics, immune to sleep, fierce folders of pizza slices, and schmear-ers of bagels. They are also ahead of the masses when it comes to going to therapy.
But it’s New York, you need therapy living in that city.
Maybe so, but also maybe we all could use a little talk therapy. We get by with a little help from our friends, and maybe our friends get by with a little help from their therapists.
I'm curious to know...
Why is it that when we go to therapy to help an ailment in the body it is totally and globally socially acceptable? But when we go for pain in the mind it means that something must be wrong with us. Do we have to fight in a war or go through a pandemic to feel deserving of a visit to the psychologist?
This social issue is a global issue. On one occasion while I was living outside of the US a friend whispered to me while we were out for drinks, “I’m going to see a therapist.” I think I said something such as, “That’s great!” while wondering why she was whispering, why she was so secretive about it. After all, if you weren’t seeing a therapist in NYC then something must be off. Kidding, of course.
No, you aren't.
...
Globalization
We hear about globalization all the time. Globalization of foods and businesses (ping-pong tables grace the floors of startups from Silicon Valley to the Middle East). With globalization comes influence. Businesses such as all those social media apps contribute greatly to the globalization of ideas, fashion, humanitarian efforts, and the influence of going to and accepting therapy as a normal mode of help.
See, TikTok shouldn't be banned.
I am not going there.
The rise of accounts such as My Therapist Says, My Defining Moment, and The Holistic Psychologist on Instagram played a role in taking some of the stigmas away from therapy and shedding a positive light on it, as well as some humor. But between all of the laughs and poking fun at ourselves, there is a deep, deep, need for us to globally accept therapy, the kind that starts with a little chat from the heart and works its way to that back pain because after all, the body keeps the score.
Book shout-out!
The best kind.
The embrace of therapy is an act of kindness. Therapy may be viewed as an extension of God’s hand, a genuinely caring human with a profound talent that at the same time has had hours beyond hours of training. Therapy is not just something to do when everything in your life feels like it is stuck in the mud or when big trauma occurs. It can be there for you during a bad breakup; when you are confused about what to do after high school or college, or when you just have been feeling in the dumps. Talk therapy is there for you to vomit up the unspoken words that you feel you cannot say to others, or maybe you have said too much to others and now it’s time for a professional to step in.
So, without further ado. What can we learn from therapists (psychotherapists, psychiatrists, social workers, etc), and how can we apply this to our own lives?
