That's my experience. It wasn't that my first to therapists were unhelpful. I was just in a different place. The first two times I was just trying to survive, and honestly, while I gained maybe a few insights, I stayed pretty stuck because I just personally wasn't motivated to truly move forward. It was a mindset thing at the time that I was just a miserable, hopeless person and life just wasn't going to get better.

By the time I hit my last therapist, I was much older and much more focused on doing whatever the heck I needed to do to get past my crap and get on with life. I found an impatience with the status quo (finally) and I think I would have walked through fire if that was what it took. It still took 10 years of therapy the 3rd time because . . . well . . . life kept throwing me additional curve balls adding to the original issues. But I did get there.