Counseling isn’t just about healing past trauma; more and more, it’s becoming about giving any adult with a deficit in coping or social skills the tools they need to live a better life.
Can I Get Therapy?
A common misconception about access to therapy is that one must have a mental illness to qualify for care. If this is you, whether you’re concerned about being able to have insurance coverage or simply the ability to book an appointment, you can let this one go.
As required by law, every single American health insurance plan, whether it be an HMO, PPO, EPO, HSA, or other plan type, provides coverage for mental healthcare in some form or another. It usually doesn’t even require a referral. For some insurance plans, network restrictions may apply, so depending on what type of coverage you have, you may want to check with your provider before booking an appointment, but if you have insurance, rest assured – it covers counseling.
But the question remains: why?
There are more reasons than you might think.
Personal Growth
At some point or another, most people have likely encountered a situation they were not emotionally equipped to handle. While learning from and processing those experiences is a very common and wholly legitimate reason to seek therapy, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. A therapist’s goal in administering treatment is to work with the patient to uncover opportunities for personal growth and deliver the care that person needs.
It’s a common misconception that, unless you need someone with an online masters in counseling psychology to help you unwind the convoluted puzzle of your traumatic past, then counseling probably isn’t something you would benefit much from. The truth is much more complex.
Whether you’re seeking to prepare yourself to better cope with the stresses of the workplace, your place in society, or even existential questions about the nature of life, counselors come equipped with both questions and answers to help guide you to your own understanding of your unique life situation.
Stress Management and Resilience
For better or worse, not every difficult situation we encounter in life can be negotiated or managed to our liking; sometimes, we are simply stuck dealing with situations we find unpleasant. No matter how mature, capable, amicable, or understanding you are, it’s likely that you’ll find yourself in such a situation at least once throughout your life. And when you do, it pays to be prepared.
Therapists are ideal partners to help develop the emotional resilience and coping skills needed to work through these tough times without making bad decisions or incurring personal costs that might affect you even after the situation is resolved. Beyond a practical viewpoint, they can make the process easier by teaching you skills to better weather that stress emotionally, and how to look at the events of your life from a broader perspective to help you find meaning in such difficult times.
Improved Relationships
Nobody is everyone’s cup of tea. Whether it’s your boss at work, your parents, siblings, children, spouses, friends of friends, or just the guy who does the same walking route as you every morning who bothers you for some reason you just can put a finger on, there’s probably someone in your life that you have trouble understanding or communicating with.
This is another situation that therapists come fully equipped to help you manage. After all, their whole job is about understanding people! If you’re lucky, you might understand yourself well enough, but it’s quite unlikely that you understand other people as well as someone who’s taken years of their life to understand human psychology.
Emotional intelligence is valuable beyond improving personal and professional relationships, though. Developing a keener sense of how others think and how to relate to them can help promote a deep sense of personal satisfaction and meaning.
In such a complex world as the one we live in, understanding why people do what they do can be challenging at times. With better skills to understand the motivations and psychology of others, someone who has been through counseling can often make better sense of the world than those who haven’t spent as much time learning to see the world through the eyes of other people.
Enhanced Self-Esteem
Many people struggle with self-esteem and confidence. These feelings often stem from social exclusion experienced early in life, or pressures from family or peers that we feel unable to cope with. But sometimes it’s simply the result of bad cognitive security or negative thinking that we might pick up anywhere from the media to the people we choose to associate with. Therapists are skilled at picking up on these negative thinking patterns and helping patients turn them around to better understand themselves and what they have to offer the world.
Not everyone needs counseling. But it’s probably more likely for someone to not seek help despite needing it than it is for them to reach out without needing it! If you have ever even simply felt like there is something you wanted to talk to someone about, but haven’t felt comfortable sharing with friends or family, know that counseling is available to everyone – even if you don’t have health insurance.
Read Next: Can Natural Health Practices Truly Transform Your Life?