Psychotherapy benefits include a powerful journey towards healing and mental wellness. Seeking help and support from this process is a sign of strength, not weakness. The benefits of psychotherapy can be yours at any age as long as you are willing and capable of doing the work.

Here I explore with you the transformative power of psychotherapy, highlighting its potential to provide relief from spiraling thought processes, negative self-talk, and deep-rooted issues like eating disorders and body dysmorphia.

Understanding Psychotherapy

Effective psychotherapy is a collaborative process between an empathic psychotherapist therapist and an individual seeking help. Its aim is to provide a safe and supportive environment for individuals to explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Through this exploration, individuals can gain insight, develop coping strategies, and improve their mental and emotional well-being.

Betrayal can strike us fast and hard, a blow to gut and soul

Betrayal as a lens to look at eating disorders, PTSD, self-doubt and anxiety

Betrayal is a vast concept we may think of in limited terms. Betrayal causes such intense emotional and psychological pain the mind reels. Thinking moves to self-doubt and unworthiness.  “If I were valuable and worthy I would never have been betrayed.” Betrayal can plunge you into a sense of abandonment at your most vulnerable times. You can be anxious, bewildered and unable to think clearly about your situation.

Your identity blooms like a flower. Patience, fortitude, maybe a prickly defense, time and attention: you’ll bloom.

Finding one's true identity is a deeply personal and introspective journey that can take time and self-reflection. Here are seven steps you can take to explore and discover your true identity:

1.          Self-reflection: Take the time to reflect on your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and values. Ask yourself meaningful questions about who you are, what matters to you, and what brings you joy and fulfillment. Consider your strengths, passions, and aspirations.

Anxiety and Stress during a Pandemic

We are not living in ordinary times. Anxiety grows. Our reasonable adaptations for stress may not serve us well when stressors comes every day and sometimes ever hour. We suffer emotionally when the stability of our economics, our politics, our relationships, our health, our physical safety and the safety of those we love is continually threatened. Finding balance and reasonableness can be difficult or impossible. 

The pandemic as well as a turbulent political landscape ,compelled  individuals around the world  to adopt five fundamental strategies for coping with near overwhelming challenges.

1.COVID Caution: Embracing Physical Distancing and Mask-Wearing
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated an unparalleled level of caution in our daily lives. Physical distancing and mask-wearing have become the norm, serving as crucial shields against the virus's relentless spread. These measures not only safeguard our health but also demonstrate our commitment to the collective well-being of society.

Threshold issues are a huge force in your life, whether you are aware of them or not. The issue of threshold is around us every day, perhaps even every moment.

What exactly is a threshold? This seemingly simple word encompasses various meanings and implications, each shedding light on different aspects of our lives and experiences.

At 40, many people find themselves re-evaluating their lives and wondering if they have reached the goals they once set for themselves. But for those who have struggled with bulimia in the past, this can be an especially challenging time. When eating disorder symptoms return how to overcome bulimia urges over 40 can seem like a daunting or impossible task.

After years of battling bulimia and its related guilt, shame, and fear, they found healing and freedom from the old urges to binge and purge. However, they may be unequipped to face new challenges facing them from this time in their lives. Given the violence of our times, political polariization, climate change, COVID, and economic uncertaintly, meaning and a sturdy sense of purpose seems elusive. In such uncertain and dangerous times, bulimic urges can emerge again.

It's possible to expand life, move beyond the old urges, and learn to cope with the difficult emotions associated with this new stage of life. The task is to find meaning in life as it is now and develop beyond the old need for bulimia to cope with current challenges.

For psychotherapy success, please know that you can’t make a mistake when you are in psychotherapy. You can’t be wrong about yourself. Whatever you feel or think is part of who you are. This doesn't mean your perspective is helpful to your healing and development. It means that your perspective is what you believe and what guides you in your life.

If you are troubled, your inner self-talk may work against you as you make decisions. So, while you cannot make a mistake in psychotherapy, understanding who you are and what you believe is important. For psychotherapy to succeed, you need to be open to change. You need to be able to look at what you think and feel with a willingness to ask yourself questions and share that process with your psychotherapist.

What you remember or forget, your enthusiasm or reluctance, are expressions of who you are in the moment. They indicate the forces working within your psyche. You may not understand the reasons behind your experience, but reasons exist. Psychotherapy success involves getting to know those forces within you.