There’s the notion in the Valley, and elsewhere, that counseling is useless.  I disagree. It used to be called psychoanalysis (in those 50s and 60s movies where the uptown girl would see her analyst); and now there are personal appointments, group therapy, and groups addressing specific court requirements like violent offenders, and addictions.  There are talk, music, art and play therapies. (Some movies address psychological notions including: The Manchurian Candidate 1962, Spellbound 1945, Three Faces of Eve 1957, Awakenings 1990, The Boy Who Could Fly 1986, Antwone Fisher 2002, and Ordinary People 1980) 

Depression unchecked or not intervened upon can lead to withdrawal, self-medicating with drugs and alcohol or even suicide.  I know a lot more now than I did in my teen years and twenties when I was riddled with depression and intruding thoughts.  Back then, no one knew what to do with a teen’s changing brain. Psychiatry and psychology tools have also changed; so that the psychiatrist couch seen in the 60’s movies is now a chair, or a table, a bench by the water or a Zoom screen from your kitchen table.  Medical treatment might include new and effective prescriptions that lessen anxiety; and is often in conjunction with behavioral therapy. Sometimes the cognitive therapy includes mindfulness exercises that help the anxious brain to regroup and redirect; sometimes Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is administered.  This latter is a process of exposing both sides of the brain to the information that has been stuck on one-side without realizing the event is gone.  In Post Traumatic Stress Disease (PTSD) (some still call it a “disorder”), the traumatizing event (such as a car wreck, war experiences, workplace bullying, or marital abuse) is not fully interpreted which means using both the right- and left-brains. 

The EMDR Institute (http://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr) says: “After successful treatment with EMDR therapy, affective distress is relieved, negative beliefs are reformulated, and physiological arousal is reduced.” They also say that studies show that the brain can heal from psychological trauma not unlike a broken leg can heal after fracture. 

For me, therapy has been helping me grow as a human being. Therapy helps me remake goals after workplace bullying; it helps me see the connectedness to others who experience the ups and downs of a glass half-full or a glass half-empty. The value of forgiving others and moving forward with aspirations of love and trust is always in the work. Counseling is work; counseling requires the seeker to complete awareness exercises between meetings and reporting progress or relapses. Exercises might include deep breathing, imagining the stress like waves that just wash over and away.  It might be Tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique EFT) that helps the seeker through the daily journey. I have found that Tapping uses positive redress to spark the healing or as the taping solution foundation says “uses emotional statements and meridian energy points” on its website: http://www.tappingsolutionfoundation.org

But for some, psychological distress, clinical depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or PTSD escapes them; and they do not have ongoing awareness and disruption to life that these states can cause in any of us. But I have seen people suffer with alcoholism that could be made an easier journey of healing with an addictions’ counselor. I’ve seen myself reprocess what has happened to me in the workplace.  I have seen mentors who have navigated a family suicide with counseling.

So many resist because they still see the effort to heal the mind as quackery. Yet, person after person who has worked with a counselor finds the counselor as a teacher or guide.  I am a much better friend since I have explored the 90-degree twists and some of the 180-degree changes I have met along my journey. For me, psychiatry and psychology has enlightened my soul and brought me closer to God.  So be patient with me, be patient with you, God and my therapist or your counselor are not done with us yet. 

Nelda Curtiss is a retired college educator and long-time local columnist. Reach her at columnsbynellie.com or email her at columnsbynellie@gmail.com.