Why You Shouldn’t Fear the Psychologist

So, things haven’t been going so well for you recently, and you’ve made the smart decision to try and reach out and get some professional help. You decided to book a clinical psychologist in Perth to get some counseling. It can be daunting at first because so many people harbor fears when it comes to therapy and dealing with psychologists.

While these fears are understandable, especially for those getting therapy for the first time, they are not rational or well-founded. The truth is that there’s no reason to fear working with a psychologist, and below we’ll explain why.

1. You are Not “Mad”

One of the chief fears that people hold onto is the idea that others will perceive them as being mentally ill or suffering from some kind of mental deficiency when seeking counseling. This couldn’t be further from the truth. There are all kinds of reasons that people seek help with mental health issues, and none of them are for any kind of meaningful deficiency. Seeking help with mental health shouldn’t be viewed any differently from seeking a doctor when physically ill.

After all, if one is bed-ridden with flu, we don’t denounce them as weak or inferior, do we? They’re in need of medical help, just as some people are in need of help with their mental health. The other side of this is the idea that people think they will be perceived as “abnormal” when seeking mental health assistance. The problem with this though is that it’s very hard to pin down exactly what the standard for “normal” is that people are using to quantify these fears.

2. Therapy Makes You Stronger, Not Weaker

Being able to reach out for help with mental health issues is actually a source of strength, not weakness. Getting therapy is empowering because you are finally talking with someone who understands what you are going through and is prepared to listen and then help you with constructive solutions and therapies to resolve these issues. You might get a sympathetic ear from friends and family, but sometimes they’re too close to the situation and can’t see the wood for the trees.

3. A Psychologist Doesn’t Judge

Some people are afraid that the psychologist they meet when seeking therapy is just sitting there judging them for every little thing that they say. It’s not necessarily critical judgment that they fear, but rather being judged as crazy, or for having problems that are unimportant. Psychological professionals do not view people’s problems through that kind of lens. They are good listeners, and they listen to each individual patient intently and carefully. That’s because even though we might imagine that mental health problems are all broadly categorized and identified, they are not because every individual’s case is just that much different so as to make it impossible to use any kind of one-size-fits-all approach.

That should be reassuring to us, not a source of fear. It’s important we are heard as an individual, and a psychologist knows to do that.

4. You Have a Choice in Therapist

This brings us neatly to the final point about seeing a psychologist, which is that you needn’t be afraid of “all psychologists being the same,” because they are just as individualistic as their patients are. We mentioned above that they don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach, so one needn’t fear being ignored or having their individual circumstances overlooked. Equally, different psychologists even working in the same place have unique and tailored approaches to their therapy.

The fact is that if you don’t like one approach or don’t find it useful, you can change the approach or even just change to a psychologist and start with someone who has a style that fits you better. You have the power and the control in these situations