Written By: Constance Scharff Ph.D.

Have you ever wondered if psychotherapy is really worth your time, money and effort? The short answer is, “Yes. It is.”

Psychotherapy aims at helping an individual with issues related to mental health, interpersonal communication, and problematic behaviors, make positive life changes. The main objective is to help relieve symptoms and resolve underlying concerns by having directed conversations focused on increasing self-awareness and improving psychological and relational well-being. It is well worth the effort to seek help and guidance for all manner of mental health or interpersonal/relational issues, because doing so will have an impact on all areas of your life. It doesn’t matter whether you are having trouble communicating effectively with your spouse or experiencing depression; psychotherapy can help you not only with these types of issues, but what you learn in therapy will help in other areas of your life.

A psychotherapist will concentrate on addressing your real life problems by focusing on biases and distortions in your thinking process and by changing negative behaviors. Here are four reasons to consider making an appointment with a well-trained, experienced psychotherapist.

Heal Past Trauma. Healing comes when you can overcome a specific problem that has become a barrier to you being happy or enjoying healthy relationships. During psychotherapy sessions, by using a combination of talk and behavior therapy, you can learn to heal the past and make productive, life-changing decisions for the future. A professional knows how to ask the right questions to help you recognize known and unknown issues, and then offer suggestions to change negative behaviors and thoughts.

Develop Empathy. Empathy is often a result of psychotherapy because you learn to listen and observe the world differently. Once we delve into our own issues, we often discover insights into other people whom we socialize with regularly. Therapy will help you become more aware of your emotions and feelings, as well as what other people may experience and feel. You may notice that personal and business relationships improve due to a general change in attitude after psychotherapy.

Resolve Ongoing Issues. When past events affect us to the point that we raise defenses, anxiety can develop. Therapy helps resolve those problems that can be emotionally exhausting and interfere with a functional way of being.

Low Risk Intervention. Other than being uncomfortable at times and having to face some not-so-easy truths about ourselves, psychotherapy does not have any real negative side effects. As a holistic type of therapy, mental, physical and spiritual health are integrated to encourage you to attain the deepest level of healing and growth possible.