Posted by Dinah on February 24, 2005, at 19:46:12
In reply to What is the point?, posted by Angela2 on February 24, 2005, at 15:26:33
A good therapist can help us straighten out the tangle that we tend to make of our own thoughts. They have the distance and perspective to help us sort things out and see what is really true and what is distortions on our parts. And they can help teach us to be able to do the same thing without them being there.
They teach us coping skills to deal with emotions that seem overwhelming.
They teach us relationship skills to help us deal with the difficult people in our lives, and to help us not to be the difficult people in others' lives.
They help us see the reasons for why we do the things we do, and help us see alternatives for doing things differently.
They help us evaluate the life lessons we learned at our parents' knees and decide which ones we wish to keep and which ones we wish to discard.
And because many humans aren't likely to say "ooh, that's what it is" and change immediately, they have the patience to go over and over and over it again, in different ways and in different words. To help us struggle trying out our new strategies, and to encourage us when we're discouraged and think it would be easier to go back to our old ways.
poster:Dinah
thread:462799
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050218/msgs/462913.html