About Therapy
Standing outside a door with a frosted window…
James’ hand was resting on a cold, brass doorknob.
It wasn’t too late. He could turn back now. He could ghost the counselor and just forget this whole therapy thing.
He could just suffer through his situation; he had been through worse, after all.
Then the voice of his girlfriend sounded in his head: “You’re depressed, James, and you need help. I need you to get help.” He turned the doorknob and stepped through the door into an uncertain future with an unknown therapist.
“Home” is sometimes a place of dark feelings.
They can wrap their tendrils around you, constricting the free and happy life you once had. You’re convinced that nothing is going to turn out okay, despite what your friends and family try to convince you. They try to tell you it’s not that bad, and you know logically they might be right, but you just can’t bring yourself to really believe them.
The dark thunder clouds of sadness loom constantly, but all the tricks you’ve learned don’t do much other than keeping them at bay for a little while.
Anxiety
If you were honest, you would have to say that your oldest friend is anxiety. It’s been with you since you were a child. And it visits you at the most unpleasant times and never knows when to leave.
But you really wouldn’t know what to do without it. You know this sounds ridiculous, but it feels like a protector sometimes, like it keeps you safe from all the awful things in the outside world. It compels you to return to old worries day after day, week after week.
And you’re getting tired. You need a break – just one day without anxiety. But it won’t. It’s like a screeching two-year-old that won’t listen to your reasoned arguments, and you’d love for someone to be in your corner and help out.
Difficulty at Work
Whenever you sit down for the night to watch a little television, you always find yourself drawn to work-place dramas and sit-coms. The idea of a group of people who were like a family and worked together toward a common goal always warmed your heart.
But your job isn’t like that. The office curmudgeons aren’t lovable like they are on TV. The boss isn’t a benevolent father or mother figure.
You know that life can’t be like a sitcom. However, you’re still struggling with navigating relationships at work while avoiding the hostility and toxicity that sometimes shows up in the form of backstabbing colleagues, contentious meetings, and feeling alone.
Relationships
Do you wish things could be easier like they were in the beginning?
Do you wonder how things got so far off track?
Are you or your partner spending more time at work just to avoid arguments and discomfort at home?
You’re caught between two desires. You love your partner, and it isn’t easy to imagine leaving the life that you’ve built with them.
You’ve put so much of your time, energy, and love into this family and life that you’ve created. But you’re not happy. You’re probably asking yourself if being in a relationship is supposed to be this difficult.
So here you are caught between two paths: continue in a relationship with your discontent or separate, with all the emotional hurt that goes along with it.
It’s understandable if you feel like giving up, but there’s a third option between resigning yourself to a life of quiet desperation and separation. A different life IS possible – a life where you look forward to spending time with your partner and family. Relationship counseling can help you find the pathway back to a loving relationship.
Therapy is a journey that takes you far away from home…
In the perennial classic The Lord of the Rings, two intrepid heroes are setting off on a journey, and one says, “This is it. If I take one more step, I’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.”
You’ve been living with these struggles for a long time, and you’ve gotten used to how it feels. You don’t like your anxiety or depression, or the conflict with the people in your life. But you’re used to it.
When you come to counseling, it’s a journey of change, and that means stepping away from home to start living differently.
When you start therapy, there are a lot of things that will take you far from home. You will start to learn how to look at the world through a different set of eyes, emphasizing your choices in life and the new life you are seeking. But that journey means that you have to walk a new, exciting, but sometimes challenging path.
We frequently tell our patients, “If you want your life to be different, you have to be different.” Counseling is about living a new and abundant life, and we are here to take you on that far-from-home journey to reach your goals.
Therapy might not be what you think it is.
It’s not lying on a swooning couch, continually complaining about your life (and never really making anything different).
It’s accepting a journey that takes you far from a “home” that, when you’re honest with yourself, really isn’t satisfying.
At Dallas Psychotherapy, you get a traveling companion – someone who’s been down this road before. You get expert counsel from a caring fellow traveler who guides you to a life that matches your hopes and dreams.
On the other side of that brass doorknob is help…
… help getting to the life you want:
A life that’s no longer plagued by unmanageable feelings…
A life free of those tired arguments you keep getting into…
A life that’s free from a pessimistic view of the future…
This is your chance to live a life of purpose and meaning – one full of the bright lights of family, friends, and success.
Call today for a free 15-minute phone consultation to learn more: (469) 225-0344.