Therapy Is The Nourishment

Your Soul Needs

You may be asking yourself, “Why do I need therapy when I can just talk to my friends?” While having a strong support network of friends to lean on when you’re having a tough time is important, your loved ones fill a different role than a therapist does. A trained mental health professional can provide a more specialized kind of support—especially if you are dealing with a mental health condition. Here are some ways in which talking to a therapist differs from talking to your friends:

• Training: A therapist has gone through specialized training to recognize and treat mental health conditions. While a friend can be a good listener, they do not have the training needed to help you sort through all of the mental and emotional complexities that result from trauma, prolonged stress, or unhealthy patterns of behavior.
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• Confidentiality: While we hope that the friends we confide in will respect our privacy, the only time confidentiality is guaranteed is when we speak to a licensed therapist. Therapists are held to legal and professional standards to protect all information discussed in sessions—unless there is a risk of harm to yourself or others.
  
  
• Objectivity: When we get advice from our friends, their opinion comes from their involvement in our lives and their shared experiences with us. When we speak to a therapist, they can offer an outside perspective and help us think through different points of view.
  
  
• Attention: A healthy friendship is a two-way street: you each express your feelings and talk about your issues. While it’s important to spend equal time and attention on each person in a friendship, a therapist’s job is to pay full attention to you.