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Benefits of Weekly Counselling Sessions

People facing depression, anxiety or other mental health issues can find visiting a therapist hugely beneficial. Therapists are experts in the mental health field and can provide the necessary listening skills, advice and tactics to overcome debilitating symptoms. But how often should you go? Many people find the rescheduling and extra journeys that need to be done for weekly counselling sessions too much to dedicate themselves to. However, there are many benefits to attending weekly counselling sessions such as tackling physical symptoms, avoiding medication and making your progress move faster, that make these relatively small inconveniences extremely worthwhile in the long term.Read on to learn more about the pros and cons of weekly therapy sessions so you can make an informed decision yourself. As an experienced therapist, I find any kind of therapy beneficial for people suffering from mental health issues, though for some, more frequent sessions help make the journey smoother.

Cons of weekly therapy

You Have to Take Time Out Your Schedule

There can be some cons for people when considering whether or not to go to weekly therapy sessions. Dedicating yourself to weekly therapy involves a lot of time and effort into reworking your schedule. You might only be available certain evenings or lunchtimes, so you need to work with your therapist to find the best time you both are available. This could be a little out of the way for you or mean losing a lunch break once a week, but in the long run, it is more beneficial.Even the journey to your therapist's office could be a long one. Making this trip once a week eats into your petrol and could mean you spend more time driving to and from the place than actually sitting down and talking. While finding a nearer therapist may sound easier, often you have to consider availability and skill of the therapist which could lead you to seek one further away.

Friends and Family May Not Understand

If you have to sacrifice a couple of hours every Monday night or Friday evening, your friends and family may start to notice. You might not want to tell your family about therapy, so if they start asking questions about your whereabouts you can get scared or nervous which doesn't help your mental health. This might be because you like to keep your life private, you feel embarrassed you have to seek help or because you know your friends and family won’t understand. If friends and family start asking questions you may feel you have to tell them and then have to face their judgements and criticism.Some family members or friends may also feel upset that you didn’t come to them first for help and sought outside resources instead. Because they don’t understand the extent of your depression, anxiety or other mental health issues, they may believe that they could’ve helped when instead professional assistance was necessary.

Pros of weekly therapy

Feel Like You’re Making Process

However, there are many pros to weekly counselling sessions that help benefit your mental health and may hugely outweigh the cons. For example, by seeing your therapist on a more regular basis, you can talk to them about any progress you are making or setbacks in the week which can be addressed quickly. If your appointments were more set apart, every delay could take longer to overcome as you face it yourself without the advice of your therapist.With weekly sessions, you can take more time to look at the little things rather than feeling you can only talk about big issues because of the time limit you have. Being able to have more time to focus on everything that brings on your mental health symptoms, you will find it easier to take on the depression or anxiety as a whole in the long-run.

Avoid Medication

By having more regular meetings between you and your therapist, you can feel like your road to recovery is speeding up. Because you are squashing issues as they come up, you are less likely to fall back into the symptoms of your depression or anxiety and rely on medication to boost your mood. Many people oppose taking antidepressants because they can take a long time to come into effect and there are often unwanted side effects.Regular therapy is also beneficial for people who want to use medication, but don’t respond to it. By seeing a professional once a week, you can boost your mood and relieve your symptoms similar to how medication would but without the adverse side effects. Because you are targeting the deeply embedded reasons for your mental health issues, you are overcoming your problems by accepting them and moving on rather than just trying to suppress symptoms - and not remove them - as medication does.

Physical Symptoms Can Be Reviewed Too

A further benefit of weekly counselling sessions is that your therapist can monitor the physical symptoms of your mental health issues. Psychological trauma can trigger physical symptoms in people, with depression and anxiety well-known for often having debilitating physical effects on people’s health. Seeking regular therapy can help tackle the mental health issues which then lessen the physical problems. Your therapist can make necessary changes to their advice, and help you address any recent issues and symptoms more regularly, helping take away the physical aspects much quicker. Stomach aches, headaches, ulcers and sleeping issues are some of the ways your body is warning you that suppressing your mental health is affecting your body. Therapists help you recognise these symptoms and tackle them, as well as provide advice for visiting a doctor if necessary.Don’t suffer alone if you have a mental health issue that makes living your life much more difficult. Therapy can be the outlet you need to express your thoughts and feelings and work with a professional to discover why you are facing specific problems. Weekly sessions can be so beneficial for some people, so if you want to learn more about my services, please contactme today.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]