[emptyspace]

.
What makes you think therapy can help you?

General hope?
T's belief?
Other people have been helped?

How would you know if therapy can't help you?

[doyoutrustme]

It felt right.

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[HazelGirl]

It does help. I guess it's the fact that someone else is there for me and is giving me the tools and guidance to make it through.

[Perna]

Like HazelGirl says: it does help. Therapy is not a belief but a body of work one does with one's therapist. Presumably one does the work because it shows benefits/results. Otherwise one chooses to do something else.

[stopdog]

There are a great many things not helped by therapy. I found a way to make the woman useful for me, but it is not the way many people here describe. That way failed/was useless completely for me.

[Leah123]

I knew it could help in the present because it helped in the past, when I was 14 and first saw a high school counselor. I felt an overwhelming emotional relief having someone to open up to and found my life a lot more bearable and understandable after seeing her.

I know this course of therapy helps because of all my accomplishments during it. Behavior modification, more authenticity, taking on and succeeding in new challenges... I have ample evidence it works for me, though I had to work extremely hard to make it happen. It definitely doesn't happen in a vacuum: I find it's all about challenging myself to take action in my life, and my therapist and attachment to her helps me figure out the best way to do it and have the support and motivation to try.

[Rive.]

It's like anything in life, there are no guarantees. You won't know if something will help unless you try it and give it your best shot. Therapy is just another avenue to try and improve one's life.

Because it's a very personal and subjective journey, there aren't any 'quantifiers' of success. The barometer of whether it works or not will be you. Though you need to bear in mind that if there isn't any improvement it might be due to the unsuitable therapy approach or simply that the T is not the right match. There might be some trial and error before one gets it 'right'.

[GenCat]

I am struggling right now with this. I don't know what I want in therapy or out of therapy. I don't know that it helps all the time, but I think it can change who you are for the better. Or that's what I hold on to.

I don't think, I know.
But, I also know, this is a personal thing.
The internal changes can only be experienced.
I could list how it's worked, but really, unless one believes in their own unconscious, than it proberbly won't work.

[brillskep]

It has helped me and others. Of course, my therapist's belief is important too. I wouldn't feel comfortable working with a hopeless therapist.

[precaryous]

I'm not an organized person and as my health issues increase, I feel even more disorganized.

One thing T does is help organize my chaos.

Emptyspace, the only way you will know if therapy helps you is if you try it. If you do not feel helped from the first T you see, try another. It has taken me three tries to find one I feel is competent and genuine in this state.

[melania]

I never thought that therapy can help but when i met my t who was my pdoc at those times i liked to talk to him and he suggested me to go in therapy and be my therapist. I couldnt say no and i think it helped me somehow. For example i had social phobia but i had to talk to him despite my anxiety and i feel that my social phobia has gone.

Sometimes i need just to talk to someone and hear his/her opinion and suggestions.

And yeah this crazy chemistry between us makes me feel so high sometimes. I rememer i read article where was written that in therapy the factor who helps is relationships and feelings to each othsr. Love heals and kills us...

[tinyrabbit]

I didn't go to therapy to be helped.

I went to therapy to be heard.

[Wysteria]

I absolutely know that therapy can help..

It's been proven to create new neurological pathways and stimulate opoidal effects..there is plenty of scientific study to back that up...

Just like the confessional in the Catholic church has always helped..

Always helps to share the burden with someone safe...especially when you know that they can also help you see things differently and help you change your behaviours and emotions and thoughts...

Being with someone that is NOT family or friend means that you can talk openly and without the baggage or someone trying to push your buttons for their own reasons is sooo important...

Because having connection and touch are paramount to healing emotional wounds. The meds can only take you so far. Therapy completes the cycle.

Because I've experienced the connection and know it helps to soothe and untangle the knots of swirling emotions and thoughts. I know that he will not shame or judge me or make me feel worse On Purpose.

These are just some of the reasons that I know...why I believe and keep struggling and fighting and living to be honest. If I stop believing I won't be around much longer.

Wysteria Blue

Originally Posted by tinyrabbit

I didn't go to therapy to be helped.

I went to therapy to be heard.

I think this is why I need therapy. I have NO ONE in my real life who hears me or listens or is there. I need someone to hear me, especially the things I cannot say. If that makes sense. If I get better because of it then that's great, but I don't have much hope for that.

[Victoria'smom]

I went to therapy solely for an advocate to keep me out of the hospital because I knew my husband was talking about it with his therapist.

[healingme4me]

Sometimes, I've found my inner tapes have shifted to healthier statements that have arisen in therapy, through the years.
That's been helpful.

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[freefallin]

I don't believe therapy can help me. Every so often, I go back to a new therapist because I go into despair and think doing ANYTHING is better than laying around crying for hours by myself every day. But the reality is that therapy never helped me. It made me worse quite a few times, but it has never made me feel any better. Therapists don't seem to be very efficient at helping me find ways to work through my issues. They just want me to pay them to talk about how my week has been and such. To me, that is not helpful. I could frankly get the same effect going onto an online forum and venting to strangers for free.

But that's just my experience. I think it could be helpful for people with certain types of disorders just to talk and have someone sit there and listen/empathize. I agree with stopdog that there are a lot of people's situations it can't help, however.

[tinyrabbit]

Originally Posted by puzzle_bug1987

I think this is why I need therapy. I have NO ONE in my real life who hears me or listens or is there. I need someone to hear me, especially the things I cannot say. If that makes sense. If I get better because of it then that's great, but I don't have much hope for that.

I started to get better just because of this. I have hardly been ill since starting therapy.

[blur]

i did not find all my years of therapy to help me nor did the ~10 meds i tried. i still have gained a lot through reading about psychology and this forum. i did find much help in a 12-step program for those from alcoholic or dysfunctional families (adult children of alcoholics--my family was not alcoholic but dysfunctional). i think the main thing is to keep trying different things until you do find something that works. it's very common for people to direct you to therapy but sometimes you either need a different T or type of therapy or something else entirely. therapy isn't a cure all for everyone but it does help some.

[Petra5ed]

At first I didn't know if it would, I just went out of desperation. Had a good gut feeling about my T that I did not have about previous T's who I saw just a handful of times and then stopped. Now I don't think, I know. Just based on my experience, I've already changed for the better due to therapy... now hopefully I can keep changing!

[ScarletPimpernel]

I know because 8 years ago I made a ton of progress in therapy. I was able to live on my own, go to college, work a part time job...all very successfully.

Sadly, I lost all my support at once...and crashed. My T and Pdoc know my past, so they know they have to be in it for the long run and gradually wean mean off.

It took me quite a long time to try therapy again after the first 2 attempts didn't work at all. It took getting pretty much to rock-bottom in my depression and finally going to a pdoc and getting on medication, then another year of pdoc suggesting I try talk therapy again, before I finally got brave enough to do so. I didn't know it would work. But I just knew that something had to change for me to be happy and I finally let myself believe that it was worth trying therapy again. Thankfully!!! Best leap of faith I ever took.

[Parley]

I think therapy can help because when I am in therapy, I feel like I am doing something towards my goal and as long as I am doing that, I can maintain without running on emotions.