Therapy 101

If you’ve ever been to therapy, you might know the feeling: your therapist asks you a question and, despite your best intentions of telling the truth, a lie slips out. You panic. Can your therapist tell you’re lying? What if you decide that you want to tell the truth later? Is therapy worth it if you can’t be honest with your therapist? Long story short, in an ideal world, we wouldn’t lie to our therapists. But what counts as a lie, really, and what can we do if one (or more) has made its way into our therapy sessions?

Many people in early adulthood experience a quarter life crisis. A quarter life crisis is a developmental crisis that is unique to early adulthood. These crises are times of instability and heightened emotion that can come with times of transition.

CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I) is a form of therapy that aims to increase the body’s connection between sleep and bed, improve sleep hygiene, and establish healthy sleeping habits.

Having a baby changes everything (if you're expecting, get ready to hear that constantly). In the days and weeks following your baby’s birth, you might feel sadness, irritability, frustration, and fatigue (well, you’ll definitely feel fatigue). You know you’re supposed to feel happy, but sometimes you don’t, and you wonder if this is the baby blues that everyone talks about or something more serious, like postpartum depression. So how can you tell, and what can you do about it?

Whether through physical or psychological symptoms or even through our own behaviors and emotions, anxiety can show itself in a variety of ways that we sometimes have difficulty seeing. We are here to help. Let’s walk through a few of the more surprising ways anxiety can manifest, how you can recognize it, and how you can find relief. 

As we approach Mental Health Awareness month this May, we’re tackling some topics that keep people from accessing the mental health care they deserve, and one of the most pervasive thoughts or feelings that can keep people from seeking out mental health care is the feeling that we don’t “deserve” it. So what are some reasons we might feel like we don’t deserve therapy and how can we start to reframe those thoughts?

Despite what you've seen on TV and in movies, hypnotherapy isn’t performed by someone who is going to make you quack like a duck in front of all of your friends—it's performed by a licensed or certified healthcare professional who is specially trained in this technique. To demystify what happens in hypnotherapy, here is some insight from hypnotherapists in the MyWellbeing community, plus a few examples of what actually happens in-session.

Felt sense practices put you in touch with the felt experience of your body. Practices like Yoga, breathwork, massage, and the use of sound (making it or listening to it!) create a reverberation at a bodily level. Used mindfully, practices like these will increase the awareness of your body. Here, we will look at how we can connect to the felt sense to use it as a source of information. 

Although we often use the words “stress” and “anxiety” interchangeably, there are some key differences between the two: the main difference is that stress is caused by an external trigger, such as work or relationships, while anxiety exists even when there is no stressor present. So why do people experience stress and anxiety, how can a therapist help, and what does help actually look like in a therapy session?

MyWellbeing therapist Kim Yancey specializes in working with people who have chronic illnesses and disabilities as well as caregivers of people living with chronic illness. Here, she shares some expert insight into how chronic illness affects our mental health and how therapy can help those living with chronic illness manage their conditions and support their wellbeing.

It’s no secret that LGBTQIA+ folks face health disparities linked to societal stigma, discrimination, and denial of their civil and human rights. But everyone deserves safe and accessible mental health care and support. Whether you are looking for resources yourself or you are supporting a friend or loved one as a trusted ally, we hope this list of resources to support LGBTQIA+ mental health can help.

Have you ever wondered what goes on in a real therapy session? Because of the confidential nature of therapeutic relationships and the stigma that still exists around seeking mental health treatment, we don’t always have a good idea of what happens behind closed doors. Here are some anonymized examples from actual sessions with our community of therapists so you can see the range of topics covered in-session.

There's a fine line between being kind and generous and being a people-pleaser. So what does being a people-pleaser look like, how can people-pleasers find out what they really want, and how can they learn how to protect their time, energy, and wellbeing in order to feel more fulfilled and grounded?

To help us provide more meaningful self care, let’s talk stress and break some ish down.

While it’s incredibly important to have social support from friends and family, it’s not the same as the support you get from a therapist. So how is talking to a therapist different from talking to a friend?

Insurance and fee are top-of-mind for almost all of us. It can be very challenging to fully understand all of the terms involved and all of the options available to you. ​​​​​​​Today, we'd like to change that. Read on to learn more about this thing called "Out of Network" benefits and how they may help you access high-quality care for less.

One thing I know for certain is we all have a tremendous capacity for resilience. This has never felt more true. Patients, or “Thrivers” as I like to call them, repeatedly astound me with the ways they flourish after terrible life circumstances. Thrivers often endorse a deeper spiritual connection, appreciation of family and friends, discovery of personal strengths, and reprioritization of commitments. While it is very normal to feel out of control and even powerless in the wake of trauma, there are a number of things to get you on the path to thriving. 

In a therapy or coaching session, you might share more and feel more open and vulnerable than you do anywhere else in your life—and might feel a little weird to share so much about yourself and know nothing about the person you're talking to. Here are some thoughts from our community of therapists and coaches about why they might share things about themselves—or not—in-session.

As humans, we can’t help but compare ourselves to one another. While a little competition is a good thing, it can go south when it turns into comparison anxiety. So what is comparison anxiety and what are some ways we can stop comparing ourselves to others?

If you’re feeling a lot of emotions around dating—or not—over the last few years, you are not alone! Whether you’re “hesidating” or raring to go but you’ve lost confidence or feel a little rusty, here are a few tips you can use to cope with the whirlwind of emotions that can come out of a pandemic dating slump.

Fear of public speaking—or glossophobia—is often cited as the biggest fear reported by many American adults, beating heights, drowning, flying, and more, but it’s just one form of performance anxiety. So what is performance anxiety and, more importantly, how can we overcome it?

 Let’s dig deeper and ask ourselves why resolutions seem so easy to make, but so hard to keep.

Once you establish your essence and who you are authentically, the next step is to be open in relationships. Be yourself and don’t hold back. 

If you’re just starting your therapy or coaching journey, it might surprise you to find that many therapists and coaches assign homework in between sessions. Here are a few of our therapists and coaches on why they might do this and what it might look like for you.