Curious About Therapy? Let’s Talk About It

 

“Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn and work well, and contribute to their community. It has intrinsic and instrumental value and is a basic human right.” (World Health Organization, 2025)

So you’ve learned that there is a therapist at your doctor’s office. Perhaps you learned this from a recent notification shared by FPA, or perhaps your primary doctor recommended that you meet with the therapist. What do you do now with this information? What benefits are there in meeting with the therapist? What is therapy even like?

These questions, as well as many others, are very common to have when considering the usefulness or necessity of meeting with a therapist. Even when it is recommended, it can be difficult to feel comfortable opening up with a therapist about your life or current stressful experiences. If you’ve never experienced therapy before, that can also add a layer of “new” and “unknown” to the experience that can feel uncomfortable.

Therapy is a resource for you and is structured around your needs, interests, and goals. Therapists are trained professionals who meet with clients through therapy sessions to help improve mental health, usually through “talk therapy” as well as skill building and other approaches. Talk therapy is different from just talking to anyone like a family member, friend, or neighbor. Your support system is important, and adding to your support system a compassionate and trained therapist will strengthen your ability to respond to current life stressors.

In my own approach to therapy, I am most interested in supporting clients to feel empowered in resolving life stressors, and a primary way I do this is through collaboration and helping clients identify their strengths and tools they already have that will help them. If it is needed, in therapy I can use different approaches to help clients learn new skills to manage their thoughts, feelings, or distressing life experiences. This helps increase self-confidence and success in managing the situations.

Therapy can also be used not just for managing current life stressors, but it can also be used for processing past upsetting experiences (for instance, trauma), talk through future anxieties, or explore goals for personal transformation and growth. Therapy is customizable to each client, and every client’s decision-making power is respected in that process. I wholeheartedly believe that every client has insight or a gut feeling about how to improve their mental health and life circumstances, and I focus my work in supporting client’s take steps that align with their goals. My role is to be in your corner, to be your advocate, and support you in the journey you’ve already begun.

If therapy is something that you’re interested in, it may be helpful to consider what therapy approaches might be useful for you. Below is a list of the approaches I use. A simple Google or YouTube search will provide some brief explanation articles or videos about how each are useful. If you meet with me and find one of these approaches most interesting for your goals, let me know and we can create a plan together on how to make your goals a success.

Appropriate for all ages:

• Accelerated Resolution Therapy 
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• Creative/ Art Therapies
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
• Emotionally Focused Therapy (for individuals, relationships, and families)
• Internal Family Systems 
• Mindfulness- Based Stress Reduction
• Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy 

Appropriate for Adults:

• Cognitive Processing Therapy

Appropriate for Children and Teens:

• Attachment, Regulation, Competency (ARC) Model (family and system approach)
• Play Therapy 
• Trauma- Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

- Michael Bennett, LPCC-S, NCC