FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Therapy—sometimes called psychotherapy, talk therapy, or counseling—is meeting with a trained professional to take care of your mental and emotional health. A therapist or counselor can provide advice about—or insights into—feelings and experiences that are confusing or causing stress, and they can create a treatment plan for mental health conditions.

There is a common misconception that therapy is only for people who have been diagnosed with a mental health condition, but people go to therapy for all sorts of reasons such as:

• To discuss their lives and emotional ups and downs
• To work out conflicts
• To heal from trauma
• To improve their interpersonal skills
• To be supported through a difficult experience, like a loved one’s death
• To have a safe space to talk with someone who is not a part of their personal life

There are many types of therapy, and many of them have different purposes, such as healing from trauma, changing behaviors, or recovering from addiction. The most familiar types of therapy include:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – This type of therapy is usually short-term and focused on problem-solving, changing thoughts and behaviors, and learning better strategies for dealing with difficult situations.
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy – In dialectical behavioral therapy, people work on developing skills for dealing with painful emotions and relationships through practicing mindfulness, stress tolerance, emotional regulation, and effective interpersonal communication.
• Narrative Therapy – Narrative Therapy is a form of therapy that aims to separate the individual from the problem, allowing the individual to externalize their issues rather than internalize them. It relies on the individual’s own skills and sense of purpose to guide them through difficult times.

You may be asking yourself, “Why do I need therapy when I can just talk to my friends?” Having a strong support network of friends to lean on when you’re having a tough time is important, but your loved ones fill a different role than a therapist does. A trained mental health professional can provide a more specialized kind of support, especially if you are dealing with a mental health condition. Below are some ways in which talking to a therapist differs from talking to your friends:

• Training: A therapist has gone through specialized training to recognize and treat emotional distress and mental health conditions. A friend can be a good listener, but they do not have the training needed to help you sort through all the mental and emotional complexities that result from trauma, prolonged stress, or unhealthy patterns of behavior.
• Confidentiality: We hope the friends we confide in will respect our privacy, but the only time confidentiality is guaranteed is when we speak to a licensed therapist. Therapists are held to legal and professional standards to protect all information discussed in sessions, unless there is a risk of harm to yourself or others.
• Objectivity: When we get advice from our friends, their opinions come from their involvement in our lives and their shared experiences with us. Therapists can offer an outside perspective and help us think through different points of view.
• Attention: A healthy friendship is a two-way street: You each express your feelings and talk about your issues. It’s important to spend equal time and attention on each person in a friendship, but a therapist’s job is to pay full attention to you. It would be unfair to ask a friend not to talk about their problems, but there are professional boundaries in place that prevent therapists from sharing their personal issues with you. A therapist can help you focus on more complicated issues that need full attention.

A great way to think of your therapist is as a guide helping you to navigate your way through a dense forest. Could you do it on your own? More than likely, but a guide can help you reach your destination quicker.

Once you have found a therapist you feel comfortable with, you will work together to define your treatment goals, or what you expect to get out of therapy.

Whether you meet the goals you’ve set together depends on a number of things, some of which may be out of your control, such as cost, location, and other logistics. But there is an important piece that is within your control: commitment to your own growth. Successful therapy is not only supported by a good, trained therapist, but it’s also accomplished with cooperation and investment from you.

As mental health therapists/counsellors, the scope of treatment is talk-therapy. Typically therapists have training at a Master’s degree level and participate in yearly continuing education.

Psychologists also provide counseling services but are equipped with education and tools to provide psychological testing for schools, courts and other entities.

Psychiatrists are medical doctors with a specialty in behaviour who tend to limit their talk therapy services and are typically available for treatment of mental health disorders that require medication. Your counsellor or psychologist may refer you to a medical doctor such as a psychiatrist if they feel medication is needed along with talk therapy to support a client.