If I’m feeling generally well then why would I consider therapy?
At iMindUk our motto is Get Well, Stay Well, Be Well.
Get Well refers to support for people who are feeling unwell right now, whilst Stay Well refers to support I can offer to people who are recovering from mental health issues.
Be Well is the help I can offer to people who are feeling generally well, but who want to take some positive steps to safeguard their mental health in the future.
But will therapy, even if you are feeling generally well, help prevent mental health issues?
‘Prevention is better that cure’ is one of those truisms, and over the past couple of weeks I’ve been revisiting research that explores what prevention actually looks like, and how we can strengthen our wellbeing before we slip into ill health.
There’s an excellent article written by experts at Yale University (link below) which makes the case for this.
Firstly, the article highlights something hopeful: emotion regulation skills are learnable, and they play a major role in protecting our mental health over time. The piece describes several helpful strategies in this regard:
"Calming the body through breathing, mindfulness, movement, or relaxation.
Shifting thoughts with strategies like reframing or perspective-taking.
Seeking support by connecting with trusted “emotional allies”.
Caring for the body through sleep, nutrition, and exercise."
These are practical skills that can be built and strengthened. As the article puts it:
"The key is to embed emotion skills into daily life. That means building routines: taking mindful pauses, checking in as families or teams, using emotion words regularly, and treating sleep, nutrition, and movement as part of our regulation toolkit. At the organizational level, schools and workplaces can integrate evidence-based practices into their cultures."
But, secondly, what really struck me from the Yale article was the importance of social support structures to help these skills develop and flourish. Unfortunately, in the UK many people don't have such structures.
2023 research from the Marmalade Trust brings the issue of loneliness into focus:
• 16–29-year-olds are twice as likely as those over 70s to experience loneliness
• Almost half (44%) of UK adults report feeling chronically lonely
• The number of over-50s experiencing loneliness is set to reach two million by 2025/6
• Half a million older people go at least 5-6 days a week without seeing or speaking to anyone
So if emotional skills are supported by connection, what happens when connection is missing?
It seems to me that therapy can help offer this preventative space. It provides the opportunity to connect with an emotional ally, explore strategies around unhelpful thinking, and learn and practice new approaches to help regulate your emotions.
In the UK therapy seems to only ‘kick in’ after someone is already feeling unwell, or when they are in recovery. But what about if you are feeling generally well, yet there’s a sense nagging away that there are a few things you’d like to work on to Be Well, and there’s no-one around you who can help you explore this?
If you are interested in talking with me about how I might be able to help then you can do this by clicking ‘BOOK NOW’ or emailing me at iminduk@outlook.com
Here’s a link to the Yale University Article, give it a read: Emotion Regulation is the Linchpin for Mental Health | Yale School of Medicine