The benefits of talking therapy

Research has shown that verbalising your feelings has a significant therapeutic effect on the brain. In fact it can change your brain and when your brain changes so does everything else.

Therapy is long lasting

When you come to therapy, you’re not just working through your current problems. You’re learning to know yourself, how you evolved to be as you are and how you see and feel things. By reflecting on your your patterns of thinking, responding and your habits and behaviours, you can choose to resolve and change these if they are no longer serving you. You will gain tools to observe, affect and be with your thoughts and emotions, to regulate your nervous system and to choose how you respond to all aspects of your internal and external world. If you work to maintain these, the benefits of treatment will continue to grow over time and last far beyond any point of crisis.

It is a time to reconnect with your values and find purpose

With the demands of day to day life it is easy to become removed from the things that really matter to you; the places, people and pastimes that give purpose and bring joy. Therapy isn’t just about talking about the areas of struggle but about reconnecting with who you are and where you hope to be. Therapy can provide the guidance and support you need to move closer to the things that bring meaning to life, particularly when you are depleted.

Talking offers perspective

When we are too close to a situation, we may not be able to see it in perspective. Therapy helps to contextualise problems so you gain better clarity and identify solutions without feeling overwhelmed. Talking to someone not only enables you to gain perspective on the challenges you face but can help you identify what you feel about them and behaviours that may be contributing to their persistence. Exploring your feelings not only helps you understand subtle and often unnoticed emotions, but also helps you manage the strong and uncomfortable ones.

The unconscious becomes conscious

Many of our persistently unhelpful and unwanted life patterns and behaviours are driven not by the conscious mind but by our unconscious mind. By talking, we may identify those unconscious drivers and once they are revealed, we can set about changing them. Unconscious behaviours can leave us baffled as to why the same issues keep on repeating themselves. Why do I always feel this way? Why do I always do this? Why does this keep on happening? While we certainly can’t always choose what happens to us, we can always choose how we respond to what happens to us. By talking we can learn how to respond differently and when we respond differently, things start changing.

There’s no judgement here

The therapeutic relationship is confidential, safe and judgement free. Some of us have friends and family we can talk to and some of us don’t. Not all friends and family members are necessarily wise or impartial. Some of our struggles are so deeply personal that we really can’t imagine not being judged for them. While sharing your problems and vulnerabilities with your loved ones can really help at times, you can’t guarantee that the response you get will be without judgement and bias. Others may be attached to a certain outcome for you which isn’t in alignment with what your deepest longings. Friends and family may not always be available when you need them to be. My role is to provide a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space for you to freely explore your experience when you need it.