The Benefits of Therapy: How Counseling Can Improve Your Mental Health

What is “optimal mental health?” It can be hard to define what this is, even as mental health professionals, there is no firm definition. Is it maintaining a work-life balance? Is it genetic resilience in the face of challenges and the inevitable sadness that comes with life’s ebbs and flows? We would like to explore how we are measuring mental health and how therapy can help everyone in the face of life’s challenges. Your mental health and mental state are at the core of your external relationships and where there is unrest internally, it can manifest externally. 

An Accurate Measure of Mental Health 

Mental health has physical and emotional components that are measurable through external and internal means. Your overall physical health is a bit easier to measure and includes taking care of your body by getting regular exercise, eating a balanced diet, and getting proper rest. Getting an accurate measure of your mental health can be a greater challenge. Repetitive thoughts, failure to make decisions, and engaging in inappropriate or hurtful relationships, are just a few of the ways poor mental health manifests. Optimum mental health can look like a balance between normal amounts of worry with empowerment. But how do we know what that normal is and how to also break harmful patterns of behavior? Let’s look at ways therapy and mental health professionals can help. 

Understanding What is Effective and Ineffective In Your Life

Being able to take a personal inventory of what is and is not working in your life, as it relates to things you personally can control is key to optimum mental health. A licensed and trained therapist can help you recognize what is effective and what is ineffective in your life and how to make an actionable plan to change patterns that are not contributing to meeting your goals. What’s more, a therapist will hold you gently accountable and help you work through the right approach to help you succeed. 

Understanding Generational Trauma 

Generational trauma is the wounds, physical and emotional, that can be inherited from one generation to the next. These traumas can include abuse, or patterns of behavior or neglect, that manifest themselves as harmful habits, poor relationships, and damaged self-esteem in our present lives. Caregivers are often unaware of the transference of this trauma, as it was their own response to the trauma that altered their ability to care for a child. It can be a confusing web to untangle, as often you may not even be aware of the origin. Therapy is a safe space for yourself and your caregiver, if they are willing to explore these traumas, the ways they impact relationships, and the ability to build new healthy habits and patterns of behavior. 

Self-Exploration of Personal Growth 

Many people go to therapy proactively to explore issues that hold them back in some way relating to relationships, work, or family. Through the lens of a licensed, trained, and trusted therapist, we can create new patterns of behavior that positively impact our lives. Therapists create plans, offer resources, and can help you track progress toward personal growth. The goals of self-exploration and personal growth can help an individual become more resilient, find a more meaningful path, and live in alignment with their values and beliefs. 

Resilience during Life Transitions 

At some junctures individuals, families, and parents choose to go to therapy to assist in the process of normal life transitions. Where there is a divorce, individuals or families can visit therapists to help process change in healthy ways. An important aspect in this instance of how it can help transition is through healthy communication, between each other, and of your own feelings. Another transitory period is the loss of a family member or loved one. Grief can take many forms, healthy and, for some, unhealthy. Grief can also be experienced in losses of friendships or jobs. Therapists have many tools and techniques for helping individuals process and move through grief in healthy ways. 

Could you Benefit from Therapy? 

Everyone can benefit from speaking to a therapist. They help organize thoughts, connect to emotions, and understand how to deal with life’s challenges. Our goal is to make each day better. Therapy also helps reduce stress, and manage depression and anxiety symptoms, and it helps you be present in the moment through symptoms. You will find not only support but compassion through therapy as well. 

Finding the right therapist is paramount to making the most of your therapy. Treatments like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness Therapy treatments incorporate different modalities to alleviate symptoms that a person experiences. The right treatment for you or a loved one depends on many factors including age, personal preference, and the symptoms. Choosing a therapist who listens to you and makes decisions based on your personal history, present reality, and goals is most important. 

Apogee Behavioral Medicine offers a holistic approach with both CBT and Mindfulness-Based Therapy to patients. Our therapists have decades of experience and specialize in helping patients in many different circumstances. We offer virtual and in-office treatment and accept most major insurance. Contact Apogee to learn how our therapists can help you build resilience and conquer life’s challenges.