Therapy has been a very important during the different stages of my life, and I couldn’t recommend therapy enough to everyone around me. Therapy is good for many things and there’s many types of therapies. It’s good to note that only psychiatrists can prescribe medications, as therapists are not medical doctors.
One common form of therapy is DBT, or dialectical behavior therapy. This therapy is used to treat people with personality disorders and individuals with a history of substance abuse and self harm/suicidal tendencies. This therapy was developed by a person who had borderline personality disorder. Some techniques this therapy utilizes is mindfulness, emotional regulation,and distress tolerance.
Another type of therapy is CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy. I’ve gone through this type of therapy and found it worked very well. CBT is commonly used for anxiety and depression disorders. This therapy focuses more on how thoughts influence behaviors. Some examples are exposing a person to their anxieties or teaching them how to refrain from acting on every thought.
There are hundreds of other therapies, such as music therapy and art therapy. Therapy is a vast medical practice for a vast number of medical problems. I personally believe anyone could benefit from therapy. Stress management is a good skill to develop, as is simply having someone to talk to.
Therapy is not always an easy thing to do and sometimes one may feel worse than when the session began. This normal and part of the process. Therapy can be full of tears and bad memories, it’s about facing parts of yourself that need changed. It’s about confronting the dark parts and working through them. More than once I had to come to terms with things that needed to be fixed.
Getting a good therapist is key to good therapy. I went through three therapists before finding the right one for me. Don’t be afraid to shop around, so to speak. Do some research on the kind of therapy you think you’d need or be interested in trying. Going to therapy might seem daunting for many reasons, but I promise it isn’t scary.
Therapy helps with many problems you may be facing such as trauma, mental illness, stress management, relationship issues, etc. Some other types of therapy include couple’s therapy and marriage counseling as well as hypnotherapy, which is where a trained professional will attempt to hypnotize you for a variety of reasons. Some therapies overlap with each other. There are too many therapies to list.
If you want to start therapy, but do not know where to go, campus has mental health services available to students. This is located in the health center on the third floor of the Falcon Center. Appointments can be made online as well. Going to therapy is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of, like I said most people could benefit from it. Therapist are required by law to report if they feel you are a danger to yourself or someone else. In the end, therapists want what’s best for you and what will help you the most.
More information about mental health services offered at Fairmont State can be found here: https://www.fairmontstate.edu/student-services/student-health/default.aspx
