My Therapy Experience
By Zenden Y. Dorjee
 |
Although counseling and psychological services have existed for a good amount of time, there still seems to be an associated stigma, especially in Asian communities. Many people fail to see how the beneficial aspects of therapy outweigh any cons that people may seem to attach to it. I recently had my first ever therapy session with a trainee* clinical psychologist here at Mentem Psychological Services and I found it very insightful. Contrary to popular, I found that counseling or therapy is not only for those with severe disorders or problems, but for anyone and everyone. My therapy experience has shown me that a counselor or a therapist is an individual who can be relied upon to take a non-judgmental stance and be accepting and understanding of you and your concerns.
During my
therapy session, I shared much of my personal life, issues, and worries with
the therapist. This is what I learnt from therapy and why I think everyone should
experience it at least once:
- I learnt about myself from a spectator perspective. There have been times that I have been unaware of how I’ve made other people feel (positive and negative) in certain situations. Therapy taught me the importance of acknowledging how my behaviours and choices affect other individuals and to communicate effectively in order to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts.
- Adding onto my previous point, I realized how human everyone is. Thus, putting myself in another person’s shoes has been effective at helping me accurately acknowledge another individuals affect. Habituating this perspective taking is what I now need to practice and develop.
 |
| Zenden Y. Dorjee |
- The perceptions that we hold make up only our reality. Accepting and understanding that everyone has a different origin and is brought up differently has helped me reason and understand why some conflicts occur and how everyone holds different perceptions that consequently result in a unique reality. Therefore, rather than abruptly disagreeing with someone or something, I try to understand or think of the situation from the other perspective before reaching my own conclusion.
- Therapy provided me with a good emotional vent.
The relief you feel after pouring out your emotions through talking is no
coincidence. Many of us, especially I, have a tendency to bottle up and
conceal my emotions, worries, and troubles until it accumulates into a
major breakdown resulting in negative coping strategies, such as, binging
on a tub of ice-cream and junk food in my case. What therapy (and my
psychology course) has taught me is the value of talking, the value of
acknowledging your emotions and giving it a proper vent.
Many of us are lucky to have close friends that we can talk to and share
our matters with, however, there are still many others who feel they do not have
anyone they can talk to, no one they believe could take a non-judgmental
stance. In such cases, and all others too, therapists and counselors are always
there to listen and help in any way they can. So why not give therapy a chance?
*The
trainees at Mentem Psychological Services consists of therapists who are still in
the midst of completing their masters in clinical psychology, however, have had
7 – 9 months of experience (as of the current context) dealing with clients.
Comments
Post a Comment