Does therapy help?
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By Dr. Sai Joshi
“Does therapy help?” is the most common question that everyone asks. And I would like to take an elaborate time to answer this question because I feel that my answer to this will completely change your perspective towards the functioning of the whole mental health profession.
The effectiveness of a therapy depends on multiple factors and the answer cannot just be yes or no. The real question people have is not “whether therapy works , but whether it will work for me?”
If you want to find out if the therapy works for you or not, one must ask oneself these questions and you might get the answers.
- Do I really want to work on myself and get out of this condition that makes me feel like I am good for nothing, lonely or weak.?
- Am I willing to do everything to get out of this place and get my life back to normal, happy and functioning?
If your answer to the questions above is yes, then here you go! Find yourself a great therapist, who is certified, experienced and one who follows ethics. Trust me it is hard to find one in India. Here are some markers of effective therapy:
- Trust: The effectiveness of therapy completely depends on how much a client trusts the therapist. I have had clients who believed in me 200% and did everything I said without questioning and doubting the process and I have seen their life change 180 degrees. From migraine or conception everything just worked out really well (though these are not to be treated just by a psychologist but they have underlying psychological elements which need to be treated by an expert) when you have a great faith in the intentions of your therapist and let the therapist use all their skills and expertise to get your life going.
- Severity: Sometimes it’s too late to begin the therapy and one might just lose something very important along the way. Let me give you an example, a teenager kid came to me when his right hand started trembling every time he went to attempt an exam. This was a classic case of anxiety expressed in the form of somatic symptoms. A kid who was supposed to attempt his 10th boards comes to me 2 months before the exam and there is no guarantee that the symptoms can just disappear before the exam. A lot of deep work on his anxiety revealed that the kid was going through emotional torture and was being bullied for preforming best in his class by his own classmates. Had the child come out earlier, we could have reduced the severity of the symptoms for him to attend his exams symptom-free.
- Consistency: Being absolutely consistent with the homework and practice of mental exercises prescribed by your therapist will eventually show the changes. You have to be really patient and consistent with your therapy process.
- It’s more outside the therapist’s room: Always remember, even if your therapist helps you vent out, guides you and walks your path with you through the healing process, a lot of it happens outside the therapist’s room. It’s not what you just discuss with your therapist but what you do in your home, in your real life, and that is where the majority of work is done.
Dr. Sai Joshi Khedkar, a clinical psychologist from Pune says, “having met more than 500 clients over the past 7 years, the answer to this question can only be given by the client and not me. I just try to do my best when it comes to each and every client”. Now, if you ask me if therapy works? The answer is what you give to yourself.
Happy therapy to all of you!
