Therapy

By SARK from her book titled " Succulent Wild Woman"

There is still a stigma about "going to therapy". As though there is something wrong with you or it is self-indulgent to pay someone to help you with psychological work. Yet we pay our car mechanics, our gynaecologists or gardeners. This is curious. What is more important than our psychological health?

I watch women repeating patterns, acting unconsciously, or lost in depression and wonder why they don't seek help. Often women will say "I don't know any good therapists". Perhaps not, but other women do. Ask them. Therapy can be the acceleration out of a stagnant pattern, the support needed for an important change, the guidance for rebuilding self-esteem.

Friends can also provide some of these things, but it's not their profession. A dedicated therapist's ONLY professional purpose is your psychological health.

A large percentage of women have been sexually or physically abused - some of these women have never received any kind of therapy. I was one of these women. It took a failed suicide attempt and a brave friend asking "Why aren't you in therapy?"

We can be those brave friends for each other.

When I started therapy, it was terrifying to sit in a small room with a woman I didn't know, feeling exposed and  telling her my secrets. Now, I've been in therapy for 8 years, both individually and group work. I continue to go not because I have problems, but because it enriches me, and I am growing. I'm also fascinated by psychological process work.

We contain so much as women. We are so complex, stuffed full of feelings, memories, half-truths, denials, hopes and yearnings. We deserve to be fully alive psychologically!!