✨ 4 Ways to Break the Stigma of Mental Health Therapy ✨
There are many reasons there are stigmas around mental health therapy, including cultural, societal, religious, and familial. We often don’t view our brain as another organ in our body that needs care, just like the heart, the stomach, skin, and so on. Breaking the stigma includes changing things at a systemic level, but it can also start with us individually. Here are a few prompts to help you explore the beliefs you may have about mental health treatment.
1) What images come to mind when you think about therapy? Maybe something from a movie, a story a friend or parent told you, or an actual experience you had. When we know what’s built our narrative, we can see if it’s a narrative that actually aligns with our values, and let go of it if it does not.
2) Think about three people in your life that would support you going to therapy. You have more support than you realize.
3) What is a good response when someone tells you that they're going to therapy? We can support others in their mental health journey is many ways, starting with affirming their decision to work toward healing.
4) If nothing changes, nothing changes. Therapists aren’t there just to listen or give us advice like our friends may. They do listen and at times can offer advice, but they are trained to help us heal through trauma and show us where trauma may be stored in our body, explore dysfunctional relationship patterns and behaviors, show us exercises to form new neuropathways (to change how our brains work for the better), and to teach us emotional regulation techniques. They can also support us in identifying triggers, asking the golden questions that help us unlock the answers we hold inside of us, and to offer unconditional acceptance and a safe place, so we can explore, grow and heal.
I’d love to hear other ways and ideas you have about how we individually and collectively break this stigma. If we’ve ever needed to be open to all pathways of healing, now is the time.
