⚖️Is the heaviness of personal work worth it?

“I would stop coming to therapy if I were not a therapist”.

For months, I kept saying this to my therapist. I wasn’t dealing with any active mental health concerns, so on a personal level, I didn’t really need to go. But self-work is a part of the job—and so, week after week, I stuck with it. Not that he left me much of a choice anyway.

For context: I was seeing a psychoanalytic practitioner. It was as uncomfortable as discomfort could get, and I hated it, at least initially. I often complained that if I were an engineer or a marketer, I could have gotten away with living by the motto “ignorance is bliss.” But denial is a luxury therapists simply don’t have.

Six months in, something shifted.

The discomfort did not feel so unbearable anymore. I could sit through the sessions without the constant urge to complain. I started reading fiction with heavier themes. I was able to hold better space for my clients- especially when difficult things came up.

Therapy, as uncomfortable as it can be, can help us become more aware of the gaps in our own insight. It was hard. But what I didn’t know when I began was this: it wouldn’t be hard forever.

And that made it very, very worth it.

Until next week,
Suvrita

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