When to Consider Psychotherapy

Good mental health can be generally defined as the ability to maintain good relationships with ourself — our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, experiences, memories and intentions — with others and with our situations. The capacity to safely and securely connect to self and others provides the support and resources needed for life, healing and growth. When we connect well with self and others, we are more integrated and more able to fulfill our life

No one’s life is fully integrated and intact. We all harbor conflicts that hurt and drive us in directions we later regret. We all have a measure of brokenness. When our internal conflicts and brokenness become too much to handle, when they interfere with our ability to engage life as we want and need, psychotherapy can be a good resource for help and healing

Therapy requires investments of time, effort and money. Most people become willing to make these investments when their internal or situational problems become greater than their abilities to cope with them. Fortunately, our human nature has a kind of built in warning system which alerts us to the need for help with signs we commonly call symptoms. Symptoms assume such forms as depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, relational conflicts, complicated grief, reliving past trauma, or a confused sense of self. These and other symptoms indicate the need for therapy, especially when they significantly interfere with our ability to engage life as we need or to be satisfied in life as we want