Therapy Is A Process

Clara A. Cleve
MSSW
Family Counsleing Clinic

Therapy is a process that helps us grow and change behaviors, feelings and thoughts that are no longer working for us or contributing to our wellbeing.  Therapists can tell us things our friends or family aren’t able to tell us or won’t tell us.  A therapist can be more of an objective person in the process and can see things that we or the people close to us are unable to see.

We usually don’t enter into therapy until a crisis occurs in our life.  The Chinese have two symbols for crisis.  The two symbols are: danger and opportunity.  Often the crisis turns out to be the best thing that could have happened for us.  We make changes that enrich our lives immensely.  For instance, we may realize our passion and actively go after it, or we may enhance our marriage or relationship to a level that would never have been reached without the crisis.

In our process of growing up we learn how to get along in the world between the ages of 0-7 years.  This process won’t really significantly change unless we have a trauma such as: a death, divorce or a life threatening illness.  Often the unconscious decisions we made at our young age are no longer appropriate as an adult.  We need to learn more appropriate and more positive ways of being in the world.  Getting assistance from a therapist speeds up the process and often we are able to reach a level we would never have been able to reach without being in therapy.