Therapy. (and some self-coaching)

I just began therapy. I’ve never really been a therapy person. Not sure why. I guess that I’ve always accepted that I should be the one to change my own life. I’m super supportive of anyone’s decision to go to therapy, I guess I just thought I should be able to fix my own life. Recently, I’ve decided that it’d be nice to have some support, some ability to share what I’m feeling with another human, and even in just that act, I feel relief.

I signed on to Talkspace and I’m also going to be working with a coach.

Talkspace allows me to write whenever I want, so when I’m feeling particularly bad, this is what I do:

• Self-Coach

  • I take a break, open my Self Coaching Notes and identify my thoughts & feelings

• Write my therapist

  • I jump onto Talkspace and share my thoughts with my therapist. She checks her messages 5x a week, so I should usually hear back the next morning, depending on when I write it.

I often come the the conclusion that I should be able to fix myself (I judge myself as imperfect because I’m feeling not that great) which is also where my therapist comes in. Usually what I want to do is have someone else check me, like am I being too hard on myself? Am I seeing something from a really skewed point of view? And I don’t really want my relationship with my employees and friends to be around this constant fixing and perspective-giving. This type of therapy, where I can get quick, short feedback and start to understand a pattern with my thinking is super helpful.

Therapy & Coaching allows me to:

• Get my thoughts out of my head for review by another human

• Feel some camaraderie (my therapist told me she’s in my corner, and honestly that was so relieving)

• Have a space free of judgement to share all the things going on in my head

• Have a consistent connection to another human about the state of my humanness / mental well-being (which is super helpful)

• Get some expert advice about my anxiety level (is it something that I’m suffering with needlessly? Is it something I’m contributing to with my thought patterns?)

• See my thoughts / my life with some perspective

• Set personal goals (reduce anxiety, understand my limiting beliefs, pinpoint chronic thoughts that I want to change, feel better, change my personal life) with someone in my corner.

For me personally (right now), the difference between therapy and coaching is this:

• Coaching is dedicated to the creation of my super exciting life goals (positive-focused / future-focused). My coach is someone coaching me to the living of my best life. I’m super future-focused and there’s a TON I want to do in this world, so my dreams actually need their own coach!

• Therapy is a study of my emotional life, how I got to where I am, where I am now, where I want to go emotionally and a 3x-weekly check-in with a human who is helping me study that story and understand the science of emotions. It’s also a place where I go when I don’t feel 100% functional. When I feel like my anxiety is squishing my happiness more than 75% of the time.

Since I’ve never been in therapy, but I’d spent a ton of time in Coaching, I thought it would be a good thing to try out. I love both so far, and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about either.

Happy Saturday, Friends!

S