Busting Psychotherapy Myths
Psychology and psychotherapy have come a long way from creating its space in different fields to developing its efficiency for different problems. Now, people are more adaptive towards psychological interventions and appreciate its contribution. People are becoming more aware about human psychology, impact of our experiences on us and others and how can we deal with stressors.
However, a large part of Indian population is still unaware of mental health issues and the ways in which psychotherapy can benefit them. Myths about psychotherapy still exist in our society which contributes to low help seeking behavior and inquisitive outlook towards psychotherapists.
Busting a few of the myths related to psychotherapy, let’s discuss what psychotherapy actually is and how it can help us.
- Only “crazy” people go to therapy
It is often believed that psychotherapy is for people who go crazy or have some diagnosed mental illness. Rather, psychotherapy is targeted for everyone who feel stuck at any point in their life to help them improve their efficiency and quality of life. It could be relationship issues, managing work stress, developing personal resources or any crisis situation.
- I don’t need therapy, I can talk to my friend
Talking to a friend is obviously very relaxing and cathartic to many of us but it is not the same as talking to your therapist or taking psychotherapy. Psychotherapists are professionals who comprehend your worries, reasons for them and formulate management plans to address your concerns.
- Psychotherapy is mostly just talk
The credit for this myth goes to our television shows and movies which portray the functioning of a psychotherapist in a very passive manner. Psychotherapy is much more than just talk as the therapist works on a proper module of a therapeutic model aiming towards transformation of the client.
- Psychotherapy is Forever
Psychotherapy doesn’t work magically and bring changes overnight. Psychotherapy take time to show its efficiency, and requires some base number of sessions to identify root causes for the concerns and their competent treatment. Therapy is a continues process and if taken consistently is terminated in fixed period of time.
- Psychotherapy is happiness therapy
Psychotherapy tends to deal with client problem and maladaptive behaviors which cause distress, which, is not a very happy experience for most of us. When we discuss and identify the problems, it makes us sad, uncomfortable and overwhelmed at times. But, eventually therapy helps us to deal with our emotions and manage our stressors.
- All psychotherapies are same
There are many therapies which run on different modules aiming at different kind of problems a person may face. So, the treatment for an individual is tailored according to the needs of the client. The approach used by the psychotherapist could differ from therapist to therapist and from the nature of problems as well.
These are few of the common myths related to psychotherapy that we need to eradicate from our society and spread more factual information about psychotherapy and psychotherapists. We at Neuropsyche centres aim at creating a society more educative towards mental health, making psychotherapy more accessible, and encouraging a healthy and supportive community.