How Talk Therapy Can Transform Your Mental Health
If you’re struggling with depression, anxiety, or another mental health challenge, you may be weighing talk therapy versus other options, such as going on medication. Likely, you’ve already seen ads and internet articles from pharmaceutical companies about their products.
We’re here today to talk about the power of words in the form of talk therapy, also known as psychotherapy. The decision to see a mental health professional like our therapists at Wellness Counseling in Honolulu is a momentous one. But it’s also one with enormous opportunity.
How does psychotherapy improve your mental health? It helps in many ways, but primarily because learning more about yourself and your feelings can bring improvements that last a lifetime.
The Basics of Psychotherapy: How it Works
In talk therapy, individuals, couples, and families meet with counselors for sessions that typically last 50 to 60 minutes. Depending on needs, the sessions can be short-term (a few weeks to a few months) or long-term (months or years).
The success rates of psychotherapy are high, and it can be used alone or in combination with medications to address many mental health concerns.
Talk therapy can help with your immediate stressors:
- Relationship issues
- Financial problems
- Medical conditions
- Loss of a loved one
It is also an effective treatment for chronic concerns:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- PTSD/unresolved trauma
- Other mental health diagnoses
Meeting with a licensed mental health professional is as much a learning opportunity as a treatment. Understanding more about how to deal with and overcome challenges productively improves your self-confidence, satisfaction, and quality of life in the short and long term.
Is Talk Therapy as Effective as Taking Medications?
If you’re weighing whether to enter psychotherapy, you may wonder, will it work for me?
The answer is about three-quarters of people who attend talk therapy report seeing a benefit in it. Your feelings and emotional state are connected to your physical well-being in many ways. Therapy can help you sleep better, have more energy, and improve your ability to focus.
Researchers have developed data showing that improvements in emotional and psychological well-being resulting from counseling can bring about favorable changes in the brain and body as a whole.
In many cases, psychotherapy makes favorable brain changes on par with the changes you would experience from taking medication.
Many of our clients attending talk therapy sessions do so in combination with other self-care such as increased exercise and improving their diets — we know from experience the combinations are helpful.
How Do You Get the Most Out of Psychotherapy?
You’ll maximize the value of your therapy sessions when you work together with your counselor to establish good rapport in the therapeutic relationship.
- Understand that therapy is a collaborative effort
- Be open and honest
- Follow through on practicing new coping skills
Being matched with the right therapist is also crucial – someone you feel comfortable with, connect with and feel you can trust. One thing that sets Wellness Counseling apart from other Honolulu therapists is the care we take, matching clients and therapists.
The first time your contact us, much of the initial conversation will be about your needs and our therapists. We’ll carefully listen to your needs and weigh them against our counselors’ expertise, experience, and areas of focus.
When you’re matched with the best counselor for you, it gives the process a head start.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Please reach out today if you’d like to learn more about our Honolulu therapy sessions for individuals, couples (including marriage counseling), and groups/families.
Wellness Counseling is centrally located, open convenient hours, and we also offer telehealth online appointments if you prefer attending from your home or office. We accept most insurance plans.
We look forward to working with you and showing you how talk therapy can transform your mental health.
