Being there for your kids - Might it be Time to Start Therapy?

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

If you seem to be stuck in unhelpful same ol' same ol', they it might be time to consider starting psychotherapy. Therapy is a great way to embrace new beginnings and find healing. Mentalligent psychotherapy is a treatment strategy used to help you find your healing journey. I have a new book out that helps you get started. Check out this article.

Dr. John Robinson, and this is Teachable Moments. Let's talk about the four stages of healing. I know getting started is the hardest part of therapy. You've been struggling. It seems like forever. You keep bumping into the same obstacles day in and day out. Each day feels like a struggle just to finish, and even then you toss and turn trying to get to sleep.

Will this downward cycle ever end? Yes, it will. With your dedication, hard work, and the right fit for a thing, therapist, you can turn that downward cycle into an upward one. Also, while it feels like you are nuts, you're not. You're not even alone. In the United States, 20% of the adult population is walking around with diagnosable behavioral health issues. With the advent of the pandemic several years ago, that number went to 30%. For children and teens, that total exceeds 40%. What to do, what to do. Not surprisingly, the internet is a great place to start.

You have options. A blessing from the pandemic has been health professionals opening up to work with patients by telephone, online, and by Zoom, in addition to coming to their office. And yet, research shows that 75% of the healing process comes from the doctor-patient relationship. Only 25% comes from any particular treatment strategies or interventions your therapist might bring to the table. Of course, you can't Google behavioral health practitioners located near you. size up their pitch and pick one. However, that does sound a bit radical. More folks open up begrudgingly to a friend, family, or confidant. Some don't open up at all, but rather are gently, or not so gently, confronted by a loved one to get help or else. When starting therapy, remember, you've hired a health professional to care for you. If you're feeling unhelped,

not getting what you want, you can fire your therapist. Goodness of fit, a sense of feeling heard, working with someone who, quote, gets me, end quote, are essential for healing. In my new book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path of the Good Life, my goals are to help you get a good start, understand the context of effective therapy, and embrace the healing process. Toward those goals, I identify a new treatment strategy, which I call Men-Teligence Psychotherapy. My colleague, Dr. Kristen Lee, L-I-C-S-W, coined the term Men-Teligence, to identify. the mental and intelligence functions of the brain in creating lasting change and healing.

Where intelligence is the hardware of the brain, mental is the software. Both interact consistently to generate neuroplasticity, which creates new neuropathways that secure behavior change. I share with my readers the four stages of healing in therapy. First, all patients begin therapy with unconscious ignorance. That is, you don't know that there's a problem, and you don't know that you don't know. In this case, ignorance is not bliss. It's just how you are used to being. In the second stage of healing,

you become aware of issues, either by epiphany or by someone busting your chops. With this awareness, you enter the stage of conscious ignorance. Here, you are informed, and you want to change your thinking, feeling, and circumstances,

but you don't know how to do it. It is your therapist's job in this stage to give you options, help you to understand the impact of your words and actions on yourself and others, and equip you to make one in changes and to heal. The bulk of your therapy involves a dance between the stage of conscious ignorance and the next stage, that of conscious awareness. Your therapist gives you tools for healing, and you practice using them. Your appointments become your safe place to try out new words and actions,

appreciating their positive impact on your mood and circumstances. You also risk sharing your new self with your significant others and friend group to experience benefits in the real world. It may feel awkward and foreign at first, but you begin to get the hang of it. Toward the end of your therapy, you will notice a significant uptick in your use of healing tools in your day-to-day lifestyle. This marks your transition from the stage of conscious awareness to the last stage, that of unconscious awareness. Here, you appreciate that your hard work therapy has transformed your life and your relationships. You embrace the new you, your new neuropathways are secured, and your old, unhelpful neuropathways have withered. As adversity

happens in any kind, you overcome it. Find the blessing in it and continue on your path to the good life with good stress management and strong resilience. If I've piqued your interest and you want to find out more about mental intelligence psychotherapy and the four stages of healing, go to Amazonbooks.com, put my name, Jonathan C. Robinson, PhD, or my book title, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path of the Good Life, in the search box, and order your copy today. Blessings, Dr. John. If these comments stir questions of your own, contact me through my website at www.

thereformykids.com, or email me at John Robinson.00 at bell-south.net. I'm Dr. Jonathan C. Robinson, licensed clinical psychologist, and author, and this has been Teachable Moments. Teachable Moments, Building Blocks of Christian Parenting, is available online at AmazonBooks.com and in local and national bookstores. More on Dr. Robinson at t-M-C-P-I-N-C.com.