Wellness Rituals vs Therapy
I remember a time, not too long ago, when I was creamed by life. And I mean, totally destroyed. A negative eight on a scale of 1-10. And I remember someone telling me, “You should start a gratitude journal.” Their well-meaning suggestion fell so flat in that moment that I didn’t even know how to respond. Here I was struggling with keeping myself afloat at work, feeling so much constant high levels of anxiety that I was vomiting twice a week, and struggling to not slip into a complete state of agoraphobia, but SURE, a gratitude journal would change all of this. And you know, that may be true for some people, but in my personal life, I’ve found that more often than not, the intensity of the solution needs to match the intensity of the problem.
Solutions that match the difficulty
When I think about wellness vs. therapy, I often start with this example in mind: When I wake up from a nightmare that had me sweating, shaking and feeling like, “That was all too real” feeling, doing a body scan meditation would not help me at the core of this situation. It may ease the outwardly sensations, but it won’t help reset my nervous system because the intensity of the body scan does not match the intensity of the sensations that my nightmare left me with. Getting out of bed, washing my face and doing a full body shake, now that gets closer to meeting my situation. Same with this example: when I feel an incredible level of anger, taking deep breaths to try to calm myself down might actually feel constraining. Instead, going to my journal and writing with the intensity that I feel actually gets the emotions out of my body and then I can take a few deep breaths to further ease my nervous system.
The point being is that when we are faced with life situations, different levels of care will be needed. Sometimes a wellness level of care is appropriate and is sufficient. Sometimes it’s not and we need light therapy, or more significant therapy. It all depends on the situation that we are working with.
Mental health vs Mental Illness
Another quick reminder is that mental health and mental illness are not the same thing. Everyone has mental health. That is the same as saying, everyone has physical health. So just like our physical bodies can be in poor, okay or good health, so can our mental health. Mental illness, or mental health disorders, on the other hand, are those that have ongoing symptoms that affect our daily functioning. Examples include depression, OCD, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors.
What is wellness care?
So how does wellness play a role in our mental health status? Well, I like to think of wellness care - things like meditation, taking time to pamper ourselves, slowing down with a cup of hot tea, taking time to unwind and relax, going to a yoga or spin class - as important ways of supporting our mental health. It’s like going for a walk and moving our body helps support, improve and maintain physical health, so doing wellness care supports, improves and maintains mental health.
But what happens when wellness care just doesn’t cut it anymore? When going to the yoga class doesn’t actually address the stress you are experiencing in your relationship or the grief of a loss that just won’t be soothed by your typical self-soothing approaches?
It used to be believed that only mental illness required therapy but as the world continues to evolve, so does the thinking about therapy.
How is therapy different from wellness care?
Therapy is available for different levels of care, ranging from helping someone adjust to a new job to treating severe mental illness like schizophrenia. The difference between wellness care and therapy, however, is that in therapy, there is a treatment direction. Therapy is there to help someone navigate a situation and to reflect back what is happening so that the individual can find the healthiest way forward in life.
Unlike wellness, which usually provides general support to our mental health, therapy uses skillful techniques such as active listening, tools to help manage overwhelming or difficult emotions, approaches for better communication, tools for reconnecting with the Self, etc. to meet your individual needs at the moment of care.
Can wellness techniques substitute for therapy?
From my personal experience and from those of my friends and family, I have found that wellness techniques do NOT substitute for therapy. Instead, they are a very natural complement to each other, which is why at Reset we prioritize a variety of techniques to help our clients.
Sometimes we may be having a difficult week, and that may be just that. But a prolonged experience of difficulty usually signals a need for support and help. The key is to remember that all of us need this extra bit of support at some point or at multiple points in our lives. Luckily, the world is shifting in its understanding of therapy and it is moving to becoming the equivalent of primary care. As you know, primary care is just that -- primary and is for everyone, no matter whether you are in great physical health (you still go in for check ups and preventive care) or poor health (your primary care doctor helps care for and find other experts to improve your state of physical health).
So let’s take care of ourselves, whether going for a walk or seeing a therapist, let’s not limit the opportunity to live our most well-adjusted lives.
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