When is the right time to see a psychotherapist?

If you scroll down to see older posts on this blog, I talk about the type of sessions I offer and how psychotherapy works. This time, I wanted to quickly explain when it is the right time to see a therapist. I decided to talk about it because sometimes I receive calls and questions but no committing to making an appointment, and then calls again. I know that it is normal when people are “shopping” for the right therapist, and I think it is very important to find the right fit, a therapist who shows alignment with the way the client prefers to address their issues as well as if she presents likeable and comfortably suitable. This “fit” may be another topic to discuss. Here, though I wanted to discuss when the client is ready to come in. The answer is simple; when they attempted to solve the problem, deal with their struggles on their own and with other resources and have not been successful. It is not always necessary to see a therapist, we have lots of individual strengths to cope with adversities, and there are other supports out there such as friends, groups, elders, self-help resources; they may all work to help with our problems and even fully resolve them. However sometimes there is time when after trying and being with the situation for some time the problems are persisting, there is a lot of associated suffering, when it feels that more help is needed and it feels overwhelming, then it is good to seek professional help from a therapist. For psychotherapy to work the client needs to make good report with the therapist, trust that they can help them and be able to think and process thinking patterns (in verbal therapy). We are trained to help people with adversities, we have more resources and most importantly we offer therapeutic process to help you make changes to manage your life better. At the same time, it is best not to wait until things are feeling completely broken as it makes psychotherapy harder and longer. One important example for special consideration is marriage counselling, when couples wait for too long and come about 5 years too late, when they are not in a relationship anymore. It is a journey to get to the right therapist but the help is here and life can change for the better.