I know I tried for years on my own to "overcome life's challenges." I didn't seek out therapy on my own actually. It was recommended to me by someone who could see how much pain and depression I was in. I had no assumption that therapy was the way to "overcome life's challenges."

I needed help, and someone or something outside myself was absolutely necessary at the time or I probably would have ended up dead. There seems to be an assumption that we can just figure this out on our own without a therapist, that a person's problems must not be serious enough to warrant the help of a therapist, that we should just pick up a book and figure it out on our own or something? I'm not sure what exactly is being suggested.

The changes and progress I found were most definitely with the help of my therapists. I would say they provided different things at different points along the way. I had three therapists I worked with long-term -- one in college for a couple of years; one around age 30 for about the same length of time; the most recent in my 40's which was my longest at around 8 very full-time therapy years.

The "catalyst" for transformation with my first therapist was that he helped me understand what I was going through; he educated me in a way that was validating for me. I was quite young and very much alone in what I was going through. I really didn't understand what was happening to me. That therapist, besides just helping me to survive, helped me understand those things. He also assisted me in finding safety from an individual who was still abusive to me at the time.

The "catalyst" for transformation with my second therapist was including me in a therapy group for survivors of childhood sexual abuse which, for the first time, helped me find empathy for myself, to see myself as someone worthy of the same compassion and validation as any other survivor.

The "catalyst" for transformation with my most recent therapist was very specifically the teaching of skills that allowed me to reduce my anxiety, almost completely reduce all signs of PTSD, and bring my level of depression to a place where I can now manage it on my own.

How I could have done all of that myself while seriously depressed, experiencing constant PTSD symptoms, dangerously suicidal, occasionally manic and even psychotic, I have no idea. I needed the assistance of someone to help me find my way. I was not going to survive much longer on my own. I don't know who else, besides a therapist with training in dealing with such severe symptoms and abuse, would have been at all equipped to give me the level of information and support I needed.