Many people have the preconceived idea that therapy is not beneficial to people because the concept seems to them like a hoax. However, this is a false narrative. Therapy is one of the most necessary and sufficient steps in the journey of bettering oneself mentally and emotionally. There are various reasons why you might participate in therapy, ranging from struggling with a mental illness, healing from trauma or simply practicing self love and seeking advice from an outside perspective. The benefits of therapy will only be present if consistency is applied. You need to be actively engaged throughout the process of therapy to reach the desired outcome.
Many different generations and specific marginalized groups look down upon therapy. In frequent situations, individuals go about their daily lives not recognizing the negative opinions they have towards therapy. By having these unconscious behaviors and mindsets, they become relatively normalized and instinctive habits. It is hard to recognize that these types of habits are bad because they are implemented early on. People need to break out of their unconscious shells and realize that what they are doing will be detrimental in the long run to their emotional, physical or mental health.
Another attribute as to why therapy is looked at negatively is because you need to put in consistent effort to see an outcome. Therefore, the two options regarding therapy are to put in the effort to attend sessions or put in no effort and not attend sessions.For the process of therapy to work, you need to want to get better and take the steps to ensure that it will happen. Individuals who put in the 1% of effort at the beginning with the intention of seeing positive new changes will soon realize they must continue to put in at least 1% every day for the effects to gradually become noticeable. The beneficial effects of therapy take time to acquire. Most do not follow through and establish the habit of attending sessions because they don’t immediately see progress.
Therapy must be an ongoing source of stability to become built into your routine. Committing to working on your skills through therapy will be transformative after a significant amount of time. The more you feel that you are doing well in therapy and come to an open understanding of how it’s beneficial, the more you will start to identify as intrinsically motivated. The more you implement a positive habit into your life that results in a sense of pride, the more likely you are to continue with that specific habit.
Maintaining motivation and attending sessions is essential to feeling the effects of therapy. Many people know that seeking help is imperative for their mental and emotional gain, but they are simply not willing to put in the required effort that is needed to make an impact in their own lives. This goes back into the overall stigmatization surrounding therapy that makes it initially unattractive to begin the process of making it into a habit. You need to be actively participating in therapy for an extended period of time to make it a habit, and the easiest way to accomplish that is to establish a goal, then actively work to achieve it.