One part of your post jumped out at me as something that’s hard to reproduce without therapy:
> Experiment for yourself, by all means, but my experience has been that a very brief conversation, coming at the right moment, can be incredibly therapeutic. Or an in-depth conversation every few months. Or support from a friend along with all the other self-help strategies that commonly work for mental/emotional problems.
Getting help from a friend at the right moment can be very helpful. But sometimes your friends aren’t available at the exact right moment, just because of things in their own life or whatever. The nice thing about paying a professional is that you’re paying for reliability. If you can’t find someone to talk to when you really need it on a given week, at least your therapist will be around.
One part of your post jumped out at me as something that’s hard to reproduce without therapy:
> Experiment for yourself, by all means, but my experience has been that a very brief conversation, coming at the right moment, can be incredibly therapeutic. Or an in-depth conversation every few months. Or support from a friend along with all the other self-help strategies that commonly work for mental/emotional problems.
Getting help from a friend at the right moment can be very helpful. But sometimes your friends aren’t available at the exact right moment, just because of things in their own life or whatever. The nice thing about paying a professional is that you’re paying for reliability. If you can’t find someone to talk to when you really need it on a given week, at least your therapist will be around.