The world is not the same in so many ways with the presence of a pandemic we have not seen in over a hundred years.
And yet, the world seems to have not changed at all, watching black brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers continue to suffer and die under racial inequity.
Some days, it feels like an insurmountable task to feel optimism, motivation and hope when the things we want and continue to fight for seem to disappear in the cacophony of hate, racism, fear and chaos in the current political environment we live in. To say our country suffers from a lack of empathy may be the biggest understatement of our times.
What we are discovering from what we are feeling and witnessing in our world today, our physical health is only one aspect of our lives. The fear, the trauma, the loss, the grief, the isolation, the hopelessness of our current times has just as much impact, if not more, to our overall well-being and survival.
As a therapist, I am aware, too, of the history of psychotherapy. From the beginning, therapy has been a luxury reserved for the wealthy, the ones who could afford with their time and money to explore the depth of their psyche. Likewise, the founder’s of modern psychotherapy are primarily white, male and privileged.
Moreover, culturally, many of us feel therapy is only something you need when you can’t figure out your problems on your own or are crazy and emotionally weak if you seek out mental health treatment. However, these stigmas and barriers are causing so many of us unnecessary suffering and pain. And, the truth is, therapy has the potential to be helpful for everyone and doesn’t have to be expensive or out of reach.
So, how can therapy help you during these difficult and trying times?
THERAPY GIVES US THE NECESSARY SPACE TO FEEL OUR EMOTIONS, WHICH IS VITAL TO FEELING BETTER AND DISCOVERING HOPE AND MOTIVATION AGAIN
Emotion is important. Emotion gives us valuable information about where we stand, where our boundaries are, tells us what matters to us and areas of vulnerability, hurt and pain that need healing. However, emotion oftentimes is pushed down or told it is being irrational. And then, over time, emotion builds up and boils over, explodes or moves inward causing deep depression or explosive (sometimes destructive) anger.
One of the best ways therapy can help is by giving you a safe space to explore your emotions, feel them, see them, recognize them, explore them, understand them. Further, to see and feel how life circumstances have affected you, how oppression has showed up and how you, because you had no choice, had to swallow it up or endure it for survival. A lot of what we are experiencing now is grief on a global and community level in the face of shattering oppression and hate. It’s okay to cry, it’s okay to scream, it would be strange to feel anything less in the face of what we are seeing in the world today.
Once you discover your emotions in a therapy process, you can then learn new ways of approaching emotion and how to manage it and thereby incorporate into your life more productively and congruently.
THERAPY CAN GUIDE YOU TO NEW POTENTIALS, NEW WAYS OF THINKING, BEING AND CREATING IN THE WORLD
A common feeling, we all may experience during potent times of adversity, is hopelessness. At the bare minimum we may experience disappointment with humanity and our seeming inability to hear each other and treat each other with care, dignity and respect.
Therapy can help by guiding you towards the antidotes to paralyzing hopelessness: identifying the steps you can take to speak your mind and the actions you would like to take to stand up for the things that matter to you most in your personal life and in the world at large.
Further, as we get clearer about what is going on in the world and how we feel about it, we have the potential to discover solutions to our problems and create a new way of living and connecting. This is how new systems are created, new societies and new ways of being. Therapy has the potential to help guide you towards what you want and truly desire for yourself and, as wild as it may sound, potentially, for humanity.
THERAPY LET’S YOU KNOW YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT
As we are isolating at home for weeks at a time, only reading what the news tells us with sensational headlines, connecting as much as we can without experiencing the in-person, tangible shared experience we need, especially during a crisis, we can wonder if we are the only ones feeling the way we do.
The statement that a therapist is “a person I pay to listen to my problems” is inaccurate and, I believe, a relatively narrow view of the role of a therapist.
Therapists and therapy can be a vital part of your support system. We all need friends, advocates, professionals we trust and can rely on. A therapist can be an advocate, help you take risks or try new things, recognize areas of fear and be the support for you in times of great uncertainty. You do not have to go this journey alone. Now, more than ever, therapy can be one of the best ways to take care of yourself and increase your ability to manage problems and challenge adversity in our difficult world.
Wishing you all love, peace, sanity and moments of joy,
Renee
Photo credit: Jakub Kriz