Mental health illness does not conveniently occur at home. It is a pervasive condition that goes everywhere you go, often showing you dark days. Incidentally, a lot has been written about the risks of sharing information about one’s mental health with coworkers and employees, because let's admit it - mental health is considered somewhat of a taboo. Even as the world is pushing for greater mental health awareness, it feels like the widespread stigma attributed to mental health issues continues to act as an impediment to help-seeking behaviors. But therapy is important to get over mental health illnesses, and it should be sought, even if it means that your workplace will know about it. Here are five common myths about therapy, and we will dispel all of them. After all, misconceptions must not stand in the way of getting help.
1. People who seek therapy are crazy
Though absolutely false, this argument has been one that simply refuses to die down. Mental health disorders are complex and the WHO reports that every one in seven people across the globe has one or more mental health disorders. This means that many people we know are probably going through some kind of mental health illness at some point in their life, and we never get to know about their struggles. Even you, reading this article, have possibly felt some mental health discomfort at some point in your life. The average client in therapy, therefore, is just like you and me and goes through the same complexities of life that we all face. Unfortunately for many, they are not able to get better without help. This is why, someone seeking therapy is called a client, and not a patient.
2. Therapy is about lying on a couch, and talking to a person who is passively taking notes.
Talk therapy is one of the most common forms of therapy used today. However, everything that happens in a therapist’s office is about building a workable, cooperative therapeutic alliance. Unlike medical treatments, where the doctor is the boss, psychotherapy is a cooperative process, where the participation of the client is important because the client sets the tone of the conversation, describing what they want from therapy, what is bothering them, and what they are willing to do to get better. The therapist acts as a facilitator in this self-reflection. The couch and the notes – well that’s just popular culture for you. Therapists do take notes, but only to help them facilitate healing. And the note-taking almost never occurs at the cost of the therapist’s being present with the client.
3. Therapists tell clients what to do and become their puppet masters
This is perhaps one of the most damaging myths about therapy. A therapist is not someone looking to make an army of puppets for eventual world domination. Far from these nefarious plans, the therapist actually acts only as a facilitator. In most forms of therapy – and there are a lot of those out there, therapists act as sounding boards, to help patients get a new perspective on things. Therapists are bound by the ethics of their profession, which expect them to act in accordance with the principle of beneficence – that which benefits the client. Therefore, instead of telling the clients what to do with their lives, therapists offer suggestions about specific activities or practices that could alleviate the present mental health burden on their clients. At any given time though, this is a collaborative process, designed to work within the boundaries set by the client, and the client-therapist relationship defined by a professional code of ethics. Also, apart from being a therapeutic interaction, the client is always the boss and is free to terminate therapy any time they want to. Would a puppet be able to do that?
4. Psychotherapy is all talk
If you have watched Tony Soprano talking over and over again with his stern-faced therapist in the hit television mafia drama The Sopranos, then this is possibly what you think of therapy. Fortunately, that is just one of the many, and let’s be honest, traditional means of therapy. Carl Rogers, a psychologist in the 1960s, was one of the founders of the humanist school of thought in psychology, and he proposed the concept of person-centered therapy – something that continues to be used in most therapeutic settings. All clinicians are well trained in therapist-led modalities, which allow them to interpret client experiences for them, in a way that is most helpful. Therapy is all about joint problem-solving, and that’s the only way it should be seen. So yes, while talking is a part of the process, it's not the entirety of it.
5. Therapists blame all problems on upbringing
Are you thinking of Dr. Phil? I sure am. The theatrics and antics on the show tend to make people believe that therapists are all about blaming your parents and the way they raised you for every little thing you feel. The truth is therapists are well-trained to keep the theatrics away from their therapy office. Blaming, naming, and shaming are not therapy protocols and therapists are very likely to stay away from them as such. Instead, they offer their clients an objective, third-party perspective on their lives, allowing clients to take responsibility. Professional therapists would never admonish their clients or push them into change through aggressive tactics.
Clearly, there is a lot of unnecessary information associated with therapy and therapists, without any reason. Therapy is a legitimate, professional process, in which a trained therapist guides someone who needs mental health assistance, to a better place mentally. This may not happen overnight, because, after all, therapy is a process. However, therapy is the only way to deal with mental health issues for most. Do not let falsehoods taint your view of therapy and therapeutic settings. Get the right information about therapy and seek therapy if you need it.
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