Journal
Reflections on faith, Scripture, and the deeper life.
In previous articles, we discussed the difference between therapy and life coaching. The mental health industry is divided into different practices and types of specializations. We have therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists as the primary three practicing professionals. Often, people will easily confuse psychiatrists with therapists, especially when they decide to seek out help for mental health.
Therapy is a multidimensional field, inculcating different types of practices. Consider it more as an umbrella term, which covers various areas of treatment. The umbrella includes psychotherapy to treat multiple mental health disorders and life coaching to improve quality of life. Therapists and life coaches have long since been seen as opposites instead of two sides of the same coin. This view is valid when considering the underlying years of practice, certification (or lack of accreditati...
When people say therapy isn't for everyone, sometimes that can apply to therapists themselves who are looking for a change in their practice. As a therapist, you spend years equipping yourself with a certified license and degree for different types of disorders and psychotherapies that can treat those disorders. After that, you spend tons of money and hard work building a practice that attracts clientele. No doubt, this takes years off your life. After all that hard work, it can be unsettli...
The Bible tells us to “rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16), to have peace (John 16:33), and not to worry (Matthew 6:25-34); but for those who struggle with mental illness, is this really possible? Can someone in the depths of depression rejoice? Is it possible for someone with crippling anxiety to feel peace? Is there truly healing to be found for those suffering with mental illness?
Personal development, self-healing, and improving the quality of your life - these trends started in the early 80s under the name of life coaching. In the present day, this multi-billion dollar industry is a hot trend that you can see play out on the Instagram feeds of many celebrities, influencers, and public figures. Everyone you know is at a wellness retreat or "working on themselves." As an established or aspiring life coach yourself, these facts, you can most definitely attest.
Communication is necessary when it comes to establishing an excellent patient-therapist relationship. When patients come to trust their therapists, it opens up different, diverse channels of talk that are beneficial to their progress. Communication is a two-way street and requires equal effort on the part of both parties. Dr. Ili Rivera Walter, a marriage and family therapist, writes, "Success as a therapist is not found in doing something for the client, but rather in being something for t...
Counseling approaches are a dime a dozen. If you have your mental health practice, you already know that sometimes it takes a long time to find the right therapy fit for a patient. As people, our methods for healing based on specific trauma are different. Things that also come into factor are a person's socioeconomic, religious, cultural, academic standing. This is not to say that therapy isn't for everyone. However, sometimes the right fit does not come very quickly.
As a mental health professional, it is an unspoken part of your job to look out for new research better helps your patients. The field of psychology, like any other, is continuously evolving as we learn more about the toils and turns of the human mind. Psychologists have worked on a lot of methods that have their basis on cognitive and behavioral practices. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an amalgam of treatments that focus on both cognition and behavior. CBT is used to treat multiple...
A very old notion implies that the only way to overcome a fear is to face it. For people with usual, everyday worries and anxieties, this proves to be very helpful each time. However, this method does not have much standing when it comes to clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders. Not because it doesn't work, but because not many mental health professionals are aware of its efficacy. In the world of therapy, this is known as exposure therapy, where a therapist may introduce the patient to sp...
As a therapist or a mental health professional, the success of your work output depends on your patient's progress. Even if sometimes the progress is out of your control, this might be a metric you use to gauge whether you're making a difference in someone's life or not. It is difficult dealing with patients that have a tough time accepting treatment. Sometimes, even advanced and heavily researched techniques such as plain Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) may not be enough. Luckily for yo...
Find true peace by turning to God's Word—gain spiritual insight and courage to face anxiety with renewed faith.
As a doctor or a mental health professional, you probably receive many messages every day on your phone from people who are worried about their health. The past one and a half years have got us all very stressed, with each cough wondering whether we are slowly developing symptoms for the deadly disease. Enter COVID-19, exit all sanity. It's not uncommon for many people to judge for themselves the state of their current health, WebMD at their disposal. We are all human, and we're built with ...
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