Is Psychotherapy Helpful or Harmful?

The Reality of Psychotherapy

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

For many decades psychotherapy has been the go-to treatment for many mental health disorders and for people who wish to change a behavior, such as quitting smoking.

However, most are unaware that psychotherapy has its dark side, where it does more harm than good.

This article will focus on the pros and cons of psychotherapy and how it can be both helpful and harmful.

What is Psychotherapy?

According to the American Psychiatric Association, psychotherapy, aka talk therapy, is a method to help people face and recover from various mental health issues and emotional difficulties.

Psychotherapy helps people cope with mental health disorders such as those listed below.

· Handling daily life

· Cope with the impact of trauma

· Facing medical issues

· Coping with the loss of a loved one

· Coping with depression or anxiety

There are many types of psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioral or behavioral therapy, and many theories about why it works. After all, all one does in therapy is talk to a stranger about what is going wrong in one’s life.