We want to challenge the unhelpful notion that the perfect time for therapy is when the proverbial brown stuff hits the fan and instead posit that therapy is most effective when you’re ready to accept it, however that may look for you. It might be the moment you start to feel off, and it might be the moment the dust begins to settle.

Therapy is not merely a process of releasing, but a productive exchange. We envision old school free-association, but modern day therapy does not involve a couch-bed and an old, frizzy white-haired man taking notes from across the room. It’s an active, deep, and ongoing conversation, thus requiring a level of insight and balance to adequately reap its benefits. The clarity and emotion regulation you have right now in this very moment might actually put you in the perfect position for therapeutic intervention.

Additionally, we want to challenge the idea that a specific event or problem has to bring you into therapy. It could be a recurring theme in your life. It could be a relationship pattern that appears over and over. It could be a funny feeling that just won’t go away.

Your therapy process belongs to you, and the best part of therapy is that it is a person-to-person exchange happening in real time. So if you find yourself feeling unassertive with your friends, at work, and in your relationship, you can try on a new, assertive approach to interacting with others in a safe space. In other words, therapy can be the perfect laboratory for your own emotional and interpersonal experimentation.