Therapy is a unique and deeply personal journey that holds the potential for meaningful change, growth, and healing. Like any meaningful endeavor, the benefits of therapy depend on how you approach and engage with the process. Included below are some ways to engage effectively.
Show Up With Intention
One of the most fundamental aspects of making effective use of therapy is showing up—both physically and emotionally. Attending your sessions on time and with intention signals to yourself and your therapist that you’re committed to your own process. However, “showing up” goes beyond simply being present in the room (or on the screen, in the case of virtual therapy). It’s about engaging fully with curiosity and openness.
Approaching your sessions with a willingness to explore your feelings, beliefs, thoughts, and the therapeutic relationship itself is important. Therapy is a space for discovery—whether it’s gaining insight into your own patterns or reflecting on the ways you relate to others. Being open to both the comfortable and uncomfortable parts of this exploration is essential in facilitating deeper self-awareness.
Between sessions, it can be helpful to reflect on what was discussed. Acknowledging common patterns or themes that come up, and practicing applying the new skills or ways of interacting that were introduced during therapy. This in-between work is where much of the transformation happens. Consistently integrating and applying these insights into your daily life helps generate and solidify therapeutic progress.
Recognize Your Own Power to Change
An essential prerequisite to growth in therapy is recognizing that you have the power to help yourself. You are responsible for your own decisions, actions, and the consequences that follow. While your therapist can guide and support you, ultimately, no one can do the work of changing for you. Accepting this truth can be empowering.
By taking ownership of your own life and choices, you reclaim agency over your mental health and sense of self. Therapy becomes not just a place to process difficult emotions, but a vehicle for developing further self-agency. The more you embrace this responsibility, the more you can create the changes you seek in yourself and in turn experience more positive changes in your relationships and life.
Take Accountability For Your Own Growth
Taking accountability in therapy means being willing to explore your own contributions to recurring challenges in your life. You can facilitate your own growth process by choosing to use therapy as a space to explore your own feelings, reactions, and patterns instead of focusing on the inadequacies or behaviors of others. This doesn’t mean that others’ actions don’t matter or that they don’t have any responsibility to bear—it means shifting the focus inward to what you can control: yourself and your own actions.
As you begin to take accountability, you’ll likely encounter a range of emotions—grief, shame, guilt, sadness, anxiety, fear, joy, excitement, surprise, and contentment. Therapy offers a safe environment to explore these emotions without judgment, helping you better understand and process them. Allowing yourself to sit with these feelings, even when they are uncomfortable, is an invaluable part of healing.
Therapy Is More Than Just Comfort
While therapy can provide soothing and comfort, it’s also a space for growth and challenge. Effective therapy balances the need to help you regulate anxiety, with the need to appropriately challenge you to face and reclaim difficult emotions. This can be dysregulating at times, but growth often comes through discomfort. Therapy is a place where you learn to tolerate, understand, and ultimately transform these difficult feelings, rather than avoiding or suppressing them.
When you allow yourself to experience the full range of emotions in the presence of another person who you feel understood by, you are reclaiming parts of yourself that may have previously been denied, unconscious or neglected. This can be a challenging and tender process, that is unavoidable in order for genuine, lasting change.
Begin With The End in Mind
As you embark on your therapeutic journey, it’s important to be intentional about how you use your time. Therapy is a valuable resource, but it’s also a limited one. Being mindful of your goals and what you hope to achieve will help you make the most of your sessions. Whether you’re seeking to heal past wounds, navigate present challenges, or gain new perspectives on your life, approaching therapy with a sense of purpose will guide your progress and help facilitate an effective working alliance with your therapist.
Ready to Start Your Journey?
At Think Recovery, we’re here to support you every step of the way as you navigate the complexities of your emotional and mental health. Our virtual psychotherapy services offer a safe, compassionate space to explore, heal, and grow. If you’re ready to begin your journey toward deeper self-awareness and lasting change, we invite you to book an intake appointment with us today.
