Thinking About Starting Therapy? Here’s What You Need to Know
Therapy is often misunderstood. Many people enter it hoping for quick relief, expecting to feel lighter, better, or more in control. And while those moments do come, therapy is also deeply challenging. It asks you to sit with emotions you have spent a lifetime avoiding and to face parts of yourself that feel too painful to acknowledge. It invites you into discomfort—not to make you suffer, but because healing requires vulnerability, courage, and patience.
It is not uncommon to feel the urge to step away when therapy starts to touch on deeper pain. When we begin to unravel the protective layers that have kept us safe, the impulse to leave can be overwhelming. The mind tells us it is too much, that we cannot handle it, or that we were fine before we started. Avoidance feels like protection, but in reality, it keeps us stuck. Unprocessed pain does not simply disappear—it continues to shape our thoughts, behaviours, and relationships in ways we may not even realise.
‘Therapy is hard, and you are worth the effort’
Jo
Healing does not happen by staying comfortable, and growth does not come from skimming the surface. Therapy is hard, and you are worth the effort. No matter your age, no matter your past, no matter what happened to you, healing is possible.
It is understandable to want to turn away from pain. Many of us have learned to survive by suppressing, numbing, or distracting ourselves—through work, relationships, or anything that helps us avoid what feels unbearable. But survival is not the same as living. Therapy offers the chance to move beyond just getting by. It is an opportunity to truly feel—not just the depth of your wounds, but also the possibility of your healing.
If you are in therapy and feel the urge to quit just as things start to feel too much, I encourage you to pause. Ask yourself, What am I protecting myself from? Is leaving truly what you need, or is it the familiar pull of avoidance, hopelessness, or fear? Talk to your therapist about it. Therapy is not about pushing through for the sake of suffering—it is about learning to sit with your experience in a way that leads to transformation.
You are not broken. You are not beyond help. Your pain is not too much. Healing is available to you, and you do not have to do it alone. Therapy is not easy, but neither is carrying unhealed wounds for a lifetime.