Let me tell you how much difference the right therapist makes... Hell, the right ANYTHING makes, right? To feel truly listened to with an empathetic ear can be life changing, especially when it is coming from someone who can make such an impact with their help.
My new therapist took the time to truly get to the roots of the problems I had. We’re talking DEEP stuff - things that I didn’t even think were connected were suddenly being addressed. It felt like my quiet, shy inner child was getting the attention she secretly craved and needed in order to feel better. I learned about and used a whole heap of tools for mental health, the most successful being Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. As per Google: “EMDR focuses on distressing memories while the patient engages in bilateral stimulation (lateral eye movements or tapping), which helps the brain process and "unstick" the memory, reducing its emotional charge.” Basically, I would sit quietly holding a mental image or thought of something upsetting while calmly tapping my thighs with my palms, and we would do this repeatedly until the image or thought was no longer distressing.
More than just learning to heal with her guidance, I learned how to cope on my own, as well. I learned how to re-frame negative thoughts and developed a mental “safe space” (which for me is my Aunt’s garden in England - basically when I’m feeling overwhelmed by negative emotions, I have a note and photo on my phone that helps me focus in on the senses of being in that space: sights - flowers, sounds -birds, tastes -tea, etc.). Together with more low-key coping mechanisms, like journaling and aromatherapy, I had the tools I needed to go off into the world on my own. I even got to the point where she and I mutually decided I could take a step back from therapy.
Of course, the nature of Bipolar Disorder is that, though treatable, it is not CURABLE. Much later on (and very recently), I started to feel like I was regressing a little bit and my symptoms were becoming unmanageable on my own again, so I reached back out to my therapist hoping to restart sessions. She commended me on being able to tell when I was experiencing more than I could handle, unfortunately we discovered our schedules no longer aligned.
So there I was not too long ago, having had to find a new therapist again. Did I find one? Yes. Will it work out with this one? Only time will tell…I’ve only had one session with them and it was a mixed bag of emotions, so that will have to wait until another post further down the line.👻
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