What’s the benefit of therapy through talking? What are the differences between it and talking to a friend? Is it effective? and, importantly, will it benefit me If you’ve been thinking about these questions, keep reading to learn more about what the benefits of talking therapy are.
Have you ever seen the film scenes where the therapist is shown as an uninterested listener who smiles and makes a few snorts as the beautiful lead talks? If so, you could be skeptical about the effectiveness of therapy through talking. Nowadays there are numerous psychotherapies accessible, and this could create the impression of being not relevant.
What you may not realize that talking therapy is based on some of the most advanced social interactions that take place in human interactions. Its positive effects are confirmed by neuroscience, which is the study of the way that the brain functions. Here are seven advantages of talking therapy.
1. Attunement: The feeling of hearing
We all know it’s easier to communicate when someone has genuine enthusiasm for the things we say. Therapy is a time when you receive the full attention of your therapist. It can be a healing process in itself. In a study certain people stated that they’d never been heard in this manner prior to this (Weger 2014).
Attunement, which is the feeling of someone tuning into us, is a result of limbic resonance within the brain, where two people’s emotional states are in sync with one another. This gives us the wonderful feeling of being observed as heard and acknowledged.
The ability to connect with your parents is an essential aspect of children’s development and self-esteem. If you didn’t have enough memories of feeling attuned the world around you, talking therapy could provide a healing experience in this area that has profound positive psychological outcomes.
2. The Mentalisation of Reflecting Together
While your therapist might be an attentive listener therapy is not an all-one-sided process where you do everything talking. The therapist will interact with you and help you to consider what you have to say. You’ll have a caring thinking mind to go along with the one you have to assist to clarify and understand your thoughts and emotions.
Your therapist in London may ask questions such as “How did it feel?” and “How did it affect you?” The process of reflecting on this in this manner enhances our ability to think.
Mentalisation, the process of understanding what we are experiencing can help build emotional resilience. Young children lack mentalisation skills (hello, tantrums!). The skills are developed through a shared method of reflection with an adult who is able to identify the child’s “big emotions” and assist them in soothing them. With time the child will be able to manage and understand their emotions independently.
It was the case that in past times, little was understood about the emotional needs of children and many of us haven’t been able to develop strong mental skills. The positive thing is it’s not too for you!
Once we are comfortable with our emotions and are able handle them, they will not take over our lives. Instead, we can let the emotions we feel to help us to think about the things we require. This will help us build self-compassion, and to find sources of self-care and support.
3. Brain enrichment
A large part of therapy for talking involves the process of analyzing our feelings about the past or personal experience. We can explore a personal event from different angles and even think of new ways to approach the situation.
Every thought makes new brain connections which are known as neural pathways. The therapeutic process of talking provides many chances for these connections to grow. In time the neural integration process facilitates the process of change.
Journaling and other reflective activities between sessions can enrich the reflective process as well as strengthen the brain pathways, and help consolidate new ways of thinking and understanding.
4. Validation and containment The power of words
Words can be very powerful. The act of speaking something in public is quite different than the thought process that we have inside our heads. If we speak it out loud, we hear it in a different manner. The sharing of our story with a friend can give it a shape and make it more real. Now we know exactly what transpired.
The personal experience of being observed by therapy in this manner is a source of validation and an essential part of the process of the release of guilt or shame.
The words that are uttered in response could be equally effective. Simple statements of empathy could include: “That was really hard for you. You’ve been carrying this burden for a long period of time.” Such words of comfort provide a sense of containment, of being held by your emotional support from a person, like a slender structure as we go through our experiences.
In the end, naming our emotions can place them on the emotional map, literally talking. This can transform your anxiety from a floating cloud into something we can recognize and comprehend. We’ve already seen that the way we interpret our own inner experiences by mentalisation can help reduce our fears. Once you have that, it is easy to navigate, just as if you had an actual map!
5. Reducing stress
Think of a time you were criticized or embarrassed and how it felt in your body. Did you feel a surge of warmth to your face, or feel a feeling of shrinking inside? Think of a time that someone was kind to you. How did you feel?
When we hear criticism in our minds, the brain triggers the stress response. In contrast, a gentle tone of voice can have an uplifting effect on the nervous system.
Communication via words is directly linked to the physical world. Human brains are created to be able to recognize subtleties in voice tone for the purpose of determining danger or safety.
If we feel that we are seen as heard, understood and loved (attunement that you remember? ) and are able to relax because the brain’s signals transmit a sense of security to all living things. This calms the stress-driven fight-flight response and activates the body’s interaction system. Therapy can provide a secure place to discuss the emotional experiences we have, and will ultimately aid in healing.
6. Looking at the larger perspective
Imagine standing on the summit of a mountain with an unobstructed panorama of the land below. Inquiring about our personal story in therapy could be similar to climbing the top of a mountain. When you climb you will only be able to see only the beginning.
Sometimes, we only have scattered memories of particular times or moments that occurred in our lives. Maybe at that time we tried to make it through. Although this isn’t necessarily an issue, the drawback is that the events remain in our minds, through influencing our perceptions of our own lives, those around us and how we connect to other people and to the world generally.
Therapy sessions helps us to see the larger overall picture. It helps us put important incidents in the context of their time and connect the past and the present. Being aware of our experiences in life is like sorting images into a coherent order. In the field of therapeutic languages, this is described as forming a coherent narrative’. Naturally, this allows us to appreciate the progress we’ve made!
7. A different kind of relationship
It’s not always easy to be comfortable speaking to the people close to you regarding the things you’re experiencing. However much they are concerned, it’s hard to watch the suffering of a loved one and it’s often difficult to figure out how to respond.
Therapy is distinct from communicating with family or friends since there is no sharing of personal information. This might be uncomfortable initially. It’s normal to worry about the well-being of your therapist. you might worry that you’re overburdened or feel that your issues are too excessive. However, it could also be a huge satisfaction to be aware that therapy is an area that is just for you.
As time passes, you’ll be able to get acquainted with your counselor in an unique way. You might discover that the bond you share with them is an essential element in what makes therapy beneficial and effective. This is exactly what the research has revealed (Carey and co 2012).
In the end, therapy through talking has a wide-ranging positive impact on our emotions as well as brain chemistry and the overall story of our lives.
