Throughout life, everyone needs help. Whether it is a child learning to walk or speak, a teenager learning responsibility, or an adult learning how to truly listen. All of us have learned something, in different circumstances or the same. We will continue to need help and so will people in the next life (if there is one). So when your heart starts to get heavy and your eyes water, it is okay to crave a helping hand.

Needing someone to talk too does not necessarily mean you are weak or needy. Everyone needs support without judgment; it is not an unnatural thing. That person can be a close friend, a close family member, as long as you can speak openly to them. They should never hold anything against you, and they should be trustworthy enough not to tell anyone else what you have divulged to them.

Just because you need someone to talk to does not mean it has to be a therapist. It can be someone educated in helping others with their problems, i.e. a counsellor, social worker or mentor. Therapy comes from the Latin word therapīa which literally means “curing” or “healing”. So, therapy is only ever meant to help and in any way possible.

There are different types of therapists to help with different types of problems, in different ways. The most common type of therapy is Psychotherapy:

“Psychotherapy is therapy in which a person with mental or emotional problems talks with another person (talking therapies).This other person may be a psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor, clinical social worker, member of the clergy, alternative practitioner, or (to use the concept in its broadest sense) any helpful person. “[1]

Here is a list of common psychotherapies and their focus:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy
• Compassion Therapy- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion_focused_therapy
• Family Therapy- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_therapy
• Hypnotherapy- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy
• Mindfullness Based Cognitive Therapy- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness-based_cognitive_therapy

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotherapy