How do I know I’m ready for Therapy?

22nd Jun 21 | Go Back

The ingredients to knowing whether you’re ready for therapy can be different for everyone. Only you can decide this. However, there are some common indicators amongst people that have found therapy helpful.

• Do you need some help? Recognizing you need help is important. Is the impact of the sexual abuse you (or someone you care for) have experienced causing you emotional distress?
• Do you want change? Are you unhappy enough with how you feel, think or behaviour that you want to change that?
• Do you feel emotionally robust enough? Therapy can be challenging. It isn’t always easy to work on yourself. We appreciate your probably feeling low and exhausted by the distress you’ve been experiencing. When we say robust ‘enough’ we mean that your mental health can cope, even though it’s a struggle.

Here’s some ideas of what clients who have been ready for therapy have said they’d would like to work on:
“Finding peace” “Closure”
“To not feel consumed by the worry and anxiety” “To heal”
“To go out and not fear bumping into them” “To be believed”
“A space to talk about what’s in my head” “To understand why they did what they did”
“Ideas on how to cope when I’m feeling anxious or having a panic attack”
“To not feel it’s my fault” “To understand why I’m so angry”

Feeling agitated, apprehensive, or even frightened is very common when considering therapy. Its an important step and natural to feel a range of emotions. This doesn’t necessarily mean you aren’t ready to work on yourself. Your therapist will want to hear how you’re feeling about starting therapy and will help you put you at ease as best they can.

When you’re not being ready for therapy

Everyone has their own unique reasons as to why they may not be ready for therapy. Some common ideas are below to help you decide how you feel.

• You are sure you don’t want to talk about how you’re feeling. Not everyone is comfortable talking about their feelings. There may be other forms of help and support that might help you.
• You strictly don’t believe in counselling and therapy. Many people feel strongly that therapy doesn’t work. That’s ok, your beliefs are your own. If this is the case therapy may not be for you. (However, if you’re not sure therapy could help but willing to give it a try, therapy could still be helpful).
• Others are pressuring you to experience therapy but you don’t want to. A person has to want to give therapy a try for it to be effective.
• Substance misuse or your mental health is the priority right now. This means struggling with substance misuse or your mental health to an extent where it prevents you from being able to understand or engage with the ideas you talk about with your therapist. Or if you were gathering materials to complete suicide. Specialized support for your mental health may be most urgent. If you are experiencing this please call the Doncaster Mental Health Access Team on: 01302 566999. Therapy could still be an option in the future.

All therapy starts with an assessment. This is a meeting with a therapist to gain an understanding of what you’d like help with and whether therapy is the best way for you at this time. Its your opportunity to gain more information to help you decide if you’re ready for therapy or not.