So You Don’t Want to Go to Therapy

I begged my parents to send me to therapy at age 14 in 1961. I’ve gone back since then for individual, family and couple’s work and it’s always been a great help. Which is why it’s been hard to wrap my mind around people not wanting to go to therapy.  As a seasoned therapist, I now get it and feel sad the experience doesn’t call to people as it did to me and that many refuse to go. Maybe they went once and nothing changed. Or they felt worse after sessions and were too impatient to hang in long enough to turn around their lives. Or they had a negative experience with an unskilled therapist or one who actually harmed them emotionally. Or maybe they just gave up on themselves. Then there’s the fact that even in this day and age, our culture sends out contradictory messages about psychological help. Some...