More than 25% of American adults experience depression, anxiety, or another mental disorder in any given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. For people working in business, the pressure of meeting deadlines and the potentially competitive nature of the job are probably key contributing factors to chronic stress. How can psychotherapy help people deal with everyday life and work struggles?
What is psychotherapy?
It is possible that every living individual has had a time in their life they felt unable to climb out of anxiety or felt repeating unpleasant patterns in each one of their relationships, both personal and professional. Some people may have short-term problems that they need help dealing with.
In psychotherapy, a person talks with a trained mental health professional to explore their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors in order to identify and change unhealthy patterns and promote personal growth. When conflicts with a partner or a coworker keep surfacing, a therapist may look at your communication patterns and suggest a few experiments.
How do I know I need psychotherapy?
10 key signs that you could benefit from psychotherapy include:
- A prolonged sense of helplessness and sadness
- Difficulty in making decisions or setting goals
- Prolonged changes in sleep or eating patterns
- Difficulty concentrating on work assignments or carrying out everyday activities
- Excessive worrying about everything and always expecting the worst
- Self-destructive behaviors, such as drinking too much alcohol, using drugs, or smoking too much
- Being aggressive or even harming others
- Feeling disconnected from friends and family
- Experiencing excessive mood swings
- Struggling to manage relationships
Why is psychotherapy a life-changing experience?
Psychotherapy can be a life-changing experience because it can help people to gain insight into their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors and to understand the causes of the issues they are facing. It can also help people to develop healthier coping mechanisms and develop new skills for managing stress and difficult emotions. It can help people to gain a better understanding of themselves and their relationships with others, as well as develop more meaningful and fulfilling relationships.
How can psychotherapy help people in business?
People working in business may experience anxiety due to the pressures of meeting deadlines, meeting financial goals, or dealing with difficult coworkers or clients. Additionally, the competitive nature of the business world can cause stress and anxiety. People may also experience anxiety due to fear of failure or fear of not meeting expectations.
In such working routines, psychotherapy can be useful by providing people with the tools to:
- identify and manage stress in a healthy way,
- develop better communication skills,
- make better decisions,
- become more aware of their own emotions and be mindful of the emotions of others,
- learn how to set boundaries -including professional boundaries- and manage relationships of any kind.
12 types of psychotherapy you didn’t know they exist
#1 Individual talking therapy: The therapist helps you understand and cope with the problems you’re having.
#2 Couples therapy: It offers a space for people in a relationship to explore and understand their struggles, to be able to better communicate and resolve conflicts.
#3 Family therapy: Focusing on how family members interact, the therapist supports the family to consider their relationships and behaviors.
#4 Group therapy: In group therapy, a small group of people meets with a trained therapist to share experiences and work on common psychological issues, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and relationship issues.
#5 Animal therapy: In this type of therapy, animals, such as horses, dogs, dolphins, fish, birds or hamsters, are used in the therapeutic process. The process typically involves activities such as playing, and exercising with animals to provide comfort and manage stress and anxiety.
#6 Art therapy: In art therapy, you are performing creative art activities – using paint, chalk, crayons and even sculpture- in combination with talking therapy, as a means to express your emotions.
#7 Body therapy: This type of therapy is based on the idea that we experience the world both through our emotions and our bodies. It can include techniques such as massage, reflexology, yoga, acupressure, and other body-based practices. The goal of body therapy is to help people develop a deeper understanding of their physical and emotional selves.
#8 Dance therapy: Dance therapy uses movement and dance as a way to help people express their emotions, reduce stress, improve self-esteem, and increase physical and emotional wellbeing. It is based on the idea that movement and emotion are connected, and that by using movement to explore and express emotions, we can gain insight and understanding into our feelings and behavior.
#9 Drama therapy: This type is using acting and improvisation to help people explore their emotions and identify patterns of behavior. Through the use of role-playing, storytelling, theatre games, and improvisation, drama therapy allows people to gain insight into their thoughts and feelings, as well as identify new behaviors.
#10 Hypnosis: This type is using the unconscious mind to help develop alternative perspectives and ideas and explore underlying issues and beliefs. It is used to treat a variety of conditions including anxiety, addiction, trauma, pain management, and relationship problems, as well as deal with undesirable behaviors, such as smoking.
#11 Nature therapy: Also known as ecotherapy, nature therapy can take many forms, including walking or running in nature, gardening, forest bathing, and participating in outdoor activities. It focuses on connecting with nature to reduce stress and anxiety, improve mood and cognitive functioning, and encourage relaxation and mindfulness.
#12 Play therapy: Play therapy is addressed to children and is using play to help children process what they may find difficult to put into words. In this type, the therapist will use materials including toys, sand, musical instruments and puppets to help the child express themselves and develop new ways of coping.
