My friend DM’d me here a few wks ago & shared: “I told my therapist I wasn’t sleeping very well & it had gotten pretty bad & I needed to do something abt it.”
I naturally asked: “How long have you been seeing this therapist, & what’d they recommend?”
She replied: “Over a yr, & they told me to find a psychiatrist to get meds to help w the anxiety bc I needed something extra.”
I cannot believe that’s the default in many therapy offices. In fairness I’m not there in the sessions w her. But…I did ask what skills/exercises the therapist had been working on w her over this past yr+. Not surprisingly, the answer was “not much, other than talking thru issues in our wkly sessions.”
Why bring up this story now, when this convo happened wks ago? Bc of the reaction of many to Ja Morant (the story from last post) leaving the counseling center he went to (after what we’re being told was only a wk or two).
To some that may be a short time. But he did an interview on ESPN immediately after leaving counseling, where he talked abt the Reiki & the integrative breathing practices he’d picked up as tools over his time there, to learn to better manage his stress & emotions. I posted that interview in Stories, yesterday.
Let me ask this: how often when public figures disclose their MH challenges, do they openly talk abt what they LEARNED – that they can take home w them & use as exercises & strategies? I hear labels they share all the time. I hear meds they were given & apps they now use (veiled endorsement deals). But I rarely if ever, hear the strategies they learn.
If you keep sliding➡️ you can see a number of the many memes ppl were using to make fun of Ja’s short stint in counseling. Then later in slides you see others talking more maturely abt what counseling CAN do for someone. Even short term.
We call the toolbox: STARR (stress & trauma active release & rewiring) – or a Gym for the Brain. THAT should be the default when folks go for help: what did you LEARN? What skills did you pick up that you can now take w you, do at home, on the road, in hotels, etc. I’ll take quality over quantity any day when it comes to MH Therapy.