Therapy: a guided solution-oriented brainstorming / thought order?
Therapy is a word that is mainly used in the medical field and still has widespread negative connotations. The word is off-putting for many, equated with illness and therefore avoided. Affected people often misjudge their own symptoms or think that a discussion with friends will suffice because they do not attach any particular relevance to the supposedly small problem.
But this small problem, if not correctly classified, can become an unnecessary bigger one and bring further negative burdens for the body and soul.
So what exactly is behind the process of a therapy session? How do they work and what does it mean to talk to a professional about your concerns and problems?
First of all, it is important to distinguish between actual serious mental illnesses and mental problems or challenges. Then a further distinction is needed between genetic and biological illnesses and those that have arisen as a result of the environment and subjectively experienced traumas. Here it should be noted and remarked that genetically and biologically caused diseases often cannot be prevented in their development (but one can be attentive and take preventive measures to prevent them) and process experienced traumas with the help of mental hygiene.
Mental hygiene (or prevention) should be given the same importance as physical hygiene or the annual check-up at the dentist. In order to avoid major damage and interventions, everyone goes to have their teeth cleaned once or twice a year. And that is a good thing! Because that saves money, pain and further problems, such as caries or root canal treatments.
The aim of treatment is to prevent potential problems or to remove or solve existing ones.
So why don’t people also practice mental hygiene on a regular basis?
In our daily lives we are confronted with all kinds of challenges and burdens, we have to cope with shocks and suffering. This also leaves traces — traces that can also become noticeable physically. For example, depressed people not only feel sad, but often also physically tired and listless, and are more susceptible to pain. This in turn affects their environment, their job and their own experience of life. A professional (therapist) can help here and solve existing problems or prevent worse developments. The process or path there is not only interesting and important, but also an important step towards a solution. Like a detective, the therapist collects the verbal and emotional clues you provide in order to find the solution together with you through your mental labyrinth.
How does the therapist do this?
There are different techniques, but in simple terms he walks with you through your mental labyrinth, asking questions at places where there is a dead end and finding a new path or opening the dead end and reconnecting it with another path. In this way you come to understand your problems and at the same time find the solution. Only in this way can you fight and process your traumas. The therapist knows ways, can sort, categorise and organise information with you so that it becomes more understandable for you and order comes into a possible confusion of feelings, thoughts and experiences.
Of course, this can be uncomfortable because not all thoughts and emotions that one has had or is having want to be felt by us — but that is part of it and an important aspect of dealing with the problems in order to finally clarify them. But as with physical pain, this “chaos” is an indication that something is wrong.
But why is it not enough to talk about it with your own friends or family?
Let’s stay with the example of the dentist. You are given a few ways to take care of your teeth, such as flossing, brushing, toothpaste, interdental brushes, etc. But this does not always prevent cavities. However, these do not always prevent tooth decay and, most importantly, cannot remove it. The dentist, on the other hand, has the right and appropriate instruments not only to find the weak spot, but also to remove the possible caries in a targeted and efficient way. If one does not do this, the caries spreads and the condition of the tooth worsens.
One is not embarrassed to seek medical advice for small and also large physical complaints and certainly not would anyone think that one could treat this oneself at least as well as a doctor. So why should it be so with a small mental problem or thought and emotional knots?
This example can be applied well to one’s own friends and to dealing with mental problems. Discussing it with friends or even suppressing the problems and traumas may help in the short term, but it is not a sustainable solution.
One has to deal with one’s own mental chaos, find the origin and understand it in order to finally untie the knot. This is rarely (depending on how long ago the problem occurred, i.e. how big the knot is) if ever possible without professional help. In addition, with friends and family members there is usually an emotional bond on a personal level, which generally makes it difficult or even impossible to maintain the professional distance and neutrality necessary for therapy.
Seeing a professional therapist means getting an outsider’s view to bring order to the chaos. Someone who can help you understand your own thoughts and emotions, untie the knots and thus quickly find your way out of a negative situation.
Let us help you to sort out your thoughts, emotions and knots. Feel and see the difference this makes in your daily life. Your well-being, your joy, the everyday ease, the feeling of happiness and the enjoyment of life — this is an investment you will certainly not regret!