Misconceptions of Therapy — Transcription
Hello, again, everyone today! I’m going to be talking about misconceptions of therapy. I don’t know if you saw my Instagram story, but I asked some of you what your misconceptions of therapy are or what you’ve heard. So I’m going to answer some of them and also some that I’ve have also found to be misconceptions of therapy.
So the first one is going to be that therapy costs an arm and a leg. Yes, the sessions are expensive, but if you look at it from an hourly rate however, a lot of insurances cover it and most people have insurance. So if you have insurance, it’s really good to just track to see what your behavioral health benefits looks like (If it’s covered and how much you would owe for each session, there’s deductible, things like that). Most of the time, it’s covered in some fashion of through your insurance.
So that’s really important to know that you can use your insurance for therapy. Another thing is a lot of therapists offer sliding scale rates, meaning if you can’t afford the full fee, and let’s say you don’t have insurance, or let’s say you have a deductible of like $5,000 that you’re probably never going to reach in a year. A lot of therapists will work with you on their rate to see if they can lower their rate a little bit to work with you. So don’t let that be something to stop you at least look into it and see what you can find. And a really good resource really quickly for that is called Open Path Collective. So if you go to Open Path there are Therapists on there that offer sessions as low as $30 and up to $60 per session – usually that’s for couples counseling. So you can see a Therapist for as little as $30 if your financial situation is a little bit tough.
Next misconception is that therapy is going to be something that is only for crazy people or for weak people. Of course, that is not true! I think I’ve spoken about this before. You can see a Therapist for many reasons: if you’re stressed, if your life just isn’t where you want it to be at that moment, if you’re going through a career change or want to go through a career change there’s so many things that you can see a Therapist for, and I can promise you that it does not mean that you’re crazy or that you’re weak. If anything, it’s just a way to help yourself to get a little bit in a better position that you feel more confident in your life or that you just feel happier.
So definitely not something that is true. The next one is that couples counseling is for people who are heading for divorce. Absolutely not true. There are tons of couples that seek out counseling, just either premarital counseling, or if you’ve been in a relationship for a long time or short period of time. And your communication is just kind of off. You have different communication styles, which is very common in couples. Doesn’t mean you’re doomed from the start. It just means you have to work together to figure out what that communication looks like. So seeing a counselor for couples, marital counseling, or whatever – it does not mean that you’re headed for divorce. If anything is just a step in the right direction to help build that foundation of the relationship then next one is going to be how often you have to go to therapy.
A lot of people think like you have to go weekly or there’s multiple times a week that you have to see a therapist. There’s really no rule of thumb here. Every therapist is also different in this, but if you feel like you just want to see somebody biweekly or once a month, you can definitely do that. As long as the therapist feels like the presenting issues that you’re coming with are something that they feel like would be beneficial for weekly. And they’ll talk to you about it. They’ll work with you, especially if it’s a financial concern. It doesn’t mean that you have to see them weekly or any period of time that is consistent like that. So it’s flexible in that sense. What else? I can’t think of any more right now, but I think I answered all the ones that you guys have said.
And hopefully this helps with people’s misconceptions because therapy is really a great thing and it’s not scary. And even if it’s scary just to make that initial phone call, once you do, I promise you’re going to feel so much better. I’ve done a lot of intakes where people have called and they said that they were so nervous to call. And then after they spoke with me after they kind of let out some of what they’re feeling just for that 15 minutes, they felt so much better. So just make that call, make that email whatever it is that you can do, but just reach out to get some help if you’re just struggling a little bit and it, I promise you it’s going to be pretty beneficial for you. So again, hope that hopefully this helps kind of de-stigmatize what therapy looks like. And if you have any other things that you want to know for me about therapy, feel free to ask me on my Instagram or my Facebook, and I’d be happy to answer them. I’m here to help de-stigmatize it. And to help people get more comfortable with the idea of going to therapy. So I’d be happy to answer anything, have a good rest of your week!