Every Sunday as my 2 p.m. appointment nears, I contemplate coming up with an excuse to ditch.
Explore exactly why therapy is difficult right now.
A lot of valuable information can be found in unpacking your discomfort.
Andrymas/Adobe Stock
If you feel like you dont know what to talk about right now, why is that?
If youre bored with talking about the samepandemic emotionsover and over again, what might be more helpful?
If you dontknowwhy therapy is so difficult lately, how can you figure out whats going on?
You came to therapy to solve some sort of problem, clinical psychologistRyan Howes, Ph.D., tells SELF.
The impulse might be to say, I cant solve that problem right now, so I should leave.
But you have a new problem now, says Howes.
Whatever it is, your therapist can help you dig down deep.
Talk about your past.
Talk to your therapist about using old family photos as prompts.
Speaking of…
3.
Discuss ways to troubleshoot telehealth problems.
Why do I hate virtual therapy?
Let me count the ways.
My WiFi connection sucks and cuts out when Im trying to have a freaking breakthrough!
Body language is lost!
I get distracted by my own face on video chat!
Having therapy in the comfort of my own home blurs all sorts of boundaries!
I could go on and on.
First things first, consider turning off your camera or getting creative with your background.
On a basic level, turning off video might help with a crappy internet connection thats interrupting your therapy.
But the video component might be more than just annoying for you.
There are other problems with telehealth that might require troubleshooting too.
Maybe youre having trouble with privacy in a busy or unsafe household.
Whatever your specific problem is, you and your therapist can brainstorm together.
Talk through the thoughts that feel small, stupid, or shameful.
But therapy is a space forallour thoughts and feelings.
But all those are things that should be discussed in therapy.
If youre having trouble coming up with topics to discuss in therapy, look no further than your dreams.
Safely walk through worst-case scenarios.
This ones for you, fellow anxious human beings.
It may seem counterintuitive, but leaning into theanxietyand acknowledging your worst fears can actually lessen them with time.
The key is having someone who can steer you out of it and help you see possible solutions.
Explore the meaning you might derive from the pandemic.
Asking yourself What meaning can we derive from this?
often leads to an appreciation of life that we can carry out of this, says Howes.
What is it youre grieving right now?
What are you longing for?
Thats a list you’re free to take with you.
Its important to remember that meaning doesnt have to be positive, either.
Whatever takeaways the pandemic is offering you, dive into them in therapy.
Understand your therapist has a learning curve too.
It might be constructive to keep in mind that youre not the only onestrugglingwith the new challenges of therapy.
From a practice standpoint, therapists have unexpected hurdles too, says Fialk.
For example, they cant fully read body language and other nonverbal cues that typically help them help you.
While this is worthwhile to remember for the sake of being compassionate, it might also give you perspective.
Give us time to get used to this, and well work through this together.
Cut back on sessions if you’re gonna wanna.
Therapy isnt all or nothing, says Fenkel.
you’ve got the option to easily ramp right back up when it’s crucial that you.
Know when to move on.
They are, as the saying goes, unprecedented, so the same rules might not apply.
Practical reasons might be easier to spot, like tight finances or the inability to address specific problems.
Past that, it might just be a gut thing.
you might do what you think is best.
