In Therapy: The Language of Your Inner World

Many people hold different concepts of what therapy is and what it feels like to be "in therapy."

Therapy is a tool to help you assemble those broken pieces and help you heal. To become a fully functioning, authentic self again. Many people think of it as sitting in a chair rapping to your therapist or lying on that famous couch talking, while the therapist tears you apart into even smaller pieces and analyzes you. That it's a process in which you get pathologized and then prescribed a solution. And most importantly, only "loonies" with mental health diagnoses need it.

Truth is, therapy is a powerful tool everyone needs to navigate the challenges of life and keep their sanity. Of course, the struggles we face are different for every individual, but the emotional impact of them takes a toll on our ability to live life. But you cannot process unrevealed emotions, especially not overnight. Therapy is a time-consuming, nonlinear process; sometimes you progress, sometimes you have a setback.

Being in therapy means showing up for yourself in a way that many of us have never been taught to do. It means sitting with discomfort instead of running from it. It means learning to articulate feelings you might not even have words for yet. The therapeutic space isn't about someone fixing you or handing you answers. It's about having a witness to your story, someone trained to help you untangle the knots you've tied yourself into over the years.

Think of therapy as learning a new language, the language of your inner world. At first, it feels clumsy and awkward. You stumble over words and struggle to explain what's happening inside. But gradually, you start to recognize patterns you've never noticed before. You begin to understand why you react the way you do, why certain situations trigger you, and why you keep ending up in the same painful cycles.

The real work of therapy happens between sessions. It's in those moments when you catch yourself falling into an old habit and pause. When you choose a different response than the automatic one. When you allow yourself to feel something fully instead of numbing it away. These small shifts accumulate into a meaningful change.

Therapy isn't about becoming a different person. It's about becoming more fully yourself, the version of you that isn't weighed down by unprocessed pain, unexamined beliefs, or inherited trauma. It's about reclaiming the parts of yourself you've hidden away because they didn't feel safe or acceptable.

And if you cry your lungs out in a process, that’s okay; you’re a human. Everyone deserves support, not just in crisis, but as a regular practice of self-understanding and growth.