How Adult Therapy Can Improve Your Relationships and Career

In a world of high expectations and diverse needs we can feel lost within work/benefit systems that don’t see us, relationships that don’t satisfy us and family’s that we can’t engage with. We know that mental health is impacted by numerous things including social, psychological and economic factors, and these can leave people struggling to find a place of community, security, or to feel in control of their world. As a result, they might feel ill-equipped to deal with these demands and not know how to manage the pressures they feel, and the implications for their mental health can be severe. 

Today we are seeing anxiety and depression rates climbing, and the provision of good quality mental health therapy for adults is clearly needed. Adult psychotherapy provides people with a safe, confidential and supportive space in which to explore, gain understanding, challenge and source coping strategies. Having a safe and confidential place to talk to a trained psychotherapist can make a real difference to the way we experience self, others and life.  

So what help is available? According to some estimations, there are over 500 types of therapy for adults in use today, and theses vary enormously, such as art therapy, emotionally focused therapy, gestalt therapy, psychoanalysis, transactional analysis, the list goes on. These therapies ranging from very structured programmes such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Cognitive Analytic Therapy, within which a therapist will utilise specific activities with clients to gain understanding and influence change. Or at the other end of the spectrum lies Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Therapy during which the unconscious will be made conscious, the unknown, known. There really is a therapy for everyone. These adult therapies, whilst differing considerably from each other, all aim in some way to help a person identify, understand and potentially change troubling emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. 

Here at the Retreat Clinics, we appreciate that the world of adult psychotherapy is complex and daunting at the best of times, but even more so when those looking for help are weighted down with their mental health concerns. That is why we offer all our clients an initial assessment with an experienced therapist to establish what their needs are, what sort of therapeutic approach they might prefer and can talk them through the therapy options, with recommendations tailored just for them.   

Adult psychotherapy really can make a difference, with widespread benefits that can impact positively on both our work and private life. Regarding our work life, we might spend large amounts of time at work and if this is a stressful or toxic environment then we might start experiencing anxiety, depression, fatigue or poor self-esteem. A positive work environment, alternatively, can support confidence, sociability and be a place of growth. We also know that our mental health directly impacts our productivity and performance. When individuals are mentally healthy, they can concentrate better, make informed decisions, and maintain high levels of productivity. Therapy can help provide an objective overview of life experiences, in addition to providing a more in-depth exploration of the experience. Self-support strategies and coping skills can be important elements of therapy and with the help of your therapist, you will be supported to make change, internal and external, to bring emotional relief and resolution of problem/s. 

Your therapist will provide support for you to identify self-care strategies that will help you deal with stress/burnout. These strategies might be practical, cognitive or related to emotional regulation, but more importantly, your therapist will explore with you what the blocks might be to implementing these strategies and using them regularly. Often, we know what we should do for our own self-care, but perhaps we don’t choose to do it. 

Time away from work is critical in maintaining our mental health. Being able to regulate your work life balance to you and your loved one’s satisfaction (if in a relationship) might not be as simple as it sounds. Therapy can help you understand the underlying messages that might ‘drive’ your work ethic and explore the consequences of doing so. As we learn to understand ourselves better, we can find our ability to make choices in life much easier. Indeed, self-awareness will support you to engage in roles in which we can thrive and grow, rather than placing expectations on self that are impossible to meet.   

Likewise, the impact on our private life can be substantial. When our mental health is good, we can engage more with those we have relationships with and are better able to manage conflict. Whether a client accesses individual adult therapy or relationship therapy, both have potential to support better overall relating. Therapy helps us to look at ourselves, understand why we do what we do or are how we are, and this helps you then to understand better our relational style, for example, if our communication style is combative this doesn’t make for a harmonious and peaceful relationship. Sometimes having awareness of this will provoke the change itself, other times however it is an opportunity to talk to those also being affected and help them understand too. We all need to be able to regulate our own emotions and this enables us to be more clearly seen and heard. From this you have an opportunity to grow and develop new patterns of relating, thereby strengthening your relationships. Adult therapies will help you gain insights into why you might be feeling the emotions that you do, as well as give support to explore alternative patterns of behaviour, rewiring the brain to respond differently.   

Therapy for adults will support you to gain better self-awareness, and through this you may find self-expression much easier. Often the therapy setting is a place to practice communication skills and improve emotional literacy. Communication is both verbal and nonverbal and part of a therapist’s role, depending on the therapy engaged in, is to consider holistically what a client is saying and to reflect any disconnects and observations. They will be able to offer insights and supportive questioning to enable you to deepen your understanding, whilst offering a safe place in which to answer these questions and explore the meanings of your responses. Support is also given to understand our emotions and explore how best to regulate them.  We live in a richly diverse world and with all difference there is the potential for conflict or disagreement. Understanding self will support you to relate differently with others and to communicate your authentic self. Therapy can feel a safe place for you to experience being the real you and slowly increase your confidence to be authentic in your world.  

Emotional intelligence spans numerous areas such as self-awareness, emotional regulation, conflict resolution etc. You and your therapist can work together to explore and challenge areas of growth and areas of stagnation. The key here is that this is a collaboration between you and your therapist and together you will find new ways of being.

Empathy is an important skill in helping you understand and share another’s feelings. Being able to do so can be significant in relationships and feeling seen and heard. Honing our empathy skills can support greater relationship harmony because you can potentially predict more accurately the impact on a partner/s of any given event. It helps to develop trust, open communication and generally a more positive relational space from which to live life.

Some clients will come into therapy following a significant event that has impacted them, such as a bereavement, redundancy, retirement. Others however might come following the slow build of numerous issues that have served to overwhelm and overload the individual involved. Some clients might find that their needs are directly linked to work stress and performance expectations, but others might find that it is relationships that cause them the greatest distress. Whatever the circumstances there is a therapy to help. 

Life can be hard and none of us are exempt from the challenges life can present and these challenges can expose you to traumas that are far reaching and deeply impactful. Trauma can leave us feelings unsafe in the world and, as a result, can impact negatively on our thoughts, emotions and behaviours. Trauma needs a safe place to be processed and a safe person to process it with. Therapy can offer that. 

Relational trauma will impact other relationships and might prove harmful to self and others. Therapy can help you understand how this is happening and also explore options to change it. We can find ourselves with negative expectations of others as a result of our past, and these can prove very damaging to current relationships. Being able to understand how these patterns emerge and how to stop this is critical and this can be done in both individual or relationship therapy.  

Adult therapy, whilst it can feel uncomfortable and challenging at times, it can also get to the root of our insecurities and fears and then support you to find ways to manage these insecurities and fears. Fear, at its most extreme is paralysing. Therapy can help you gently explore what is happening with a view to finding the right support to be able to move from paralysis to activity, from avoidance to engagement.  

Strong social support, positive communication, and a sense of connection can lead to greater career satisfaction, motivation, and even higher earning potential.

Adult therapy really can make a difference, not just to yourself, but within your relationships and workplace. Support is just a click or phone call away and can be the first step towards a better you. Discover the transformative power of adult psychotherapy today and learn firsthand the benefits it can give you.