With the growing interest in mental health, sometimes people ask what kinds of issues a therapist can help you with.
While everyone has unique needs, there are 3 core areas that many of us struggle with…and where therapy can help:
1️⃣ Chronic stress
Here’s the thing, stress is not always bad. In fact, it’s a built-in, adaptive response to an immediate threat. Stress is important for keeping us safe.
However, chronic (long term) stress causes issues. When unaddressed, it can lead to anxiety, depression, health issues like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep problems, and more.
Chronic stress can also lead to unhealthy behaviors like using food or substances to cope.
Therapy helps by better understanding your stress triggers and developing healthy coping skills…so you can feel more in control of your thoughts, emotions, and reactions.
Through therapy, you can build internal resilience so that you’re better equipped to “ride the waves” that will inevitably come your way.
2️⃣ Confidence
A lack of confidence or “imposter syndrome” can affect your view of yourself and how you move through life.
Signs include feeling like you don’t deserve success, that your accomplishments are due to luck or circumstance, it might be hard to accept compliments, or you fear that you’ll be “found out” as a fraud.
Therapy helps by uncovering the root causes – which can include family dynamics, cultural norms, and personality traits…like being a perfectionist or high achiever.
Therapy also provides you with new, objective perspectives and helps you reframe your mindset so you can see things with more clarity and develop a stronger sense of self.
3️⃣ Relationships
Common struggles we hear from people are getting into unhealthy relationships, finding it hard to trust others, being irritable with their partner or loved ones, or repeating the same patterns over and over again in their relationships.
Therapy can help you navigate conflicts with family, romantic relationships, friendships, and even work relationships.
With a therapist, you’ll work toward understanding your own patterns and attachment styles in relationships.
Therapy helps you build healthier coping skills so that you can better manage stress and reduce your emotional reactivity in relationships.
If you tend to be a people pleaser, therapy also helps you connect with your needs, speak up authentically, and learn to set healthy boundaries.
Therapy isn’t just about talking to a stranger once a week. It’s an active process that helps you in so many areas of life…and you don’t have to wait until things are “bad” to benefit from it. It truly is a wonderful form of self-care.
If you’re in California and looking for a therapist, schedule a free call to see if our therapy services are a good fit for your needs.
To your wellbeing,
Dr. Nishi
Nishi Bhopal MD, Founder, Pacific Integrative Psychiatry
