This Is Us

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace Therapy Already

It can take a long time to decide you are ready to get the help you need

I have a new therapist.

I liked her the first day because she was kind and a little bit older and not a totally silent human being, which is something I look for in a therapist (and is not a given). The second session we got into a small fight, and the third one was fine but imperfect, so the jury is out. In general, it takes me about six sessions with a therapist to warm to them, to click into the thing they have to teach me.

I’ve had a lot of therapists, and some aren’t even memorable. My first time going to therapy I was young and found it confusing. I guess my parents worried that I was too wiggly? Like, they took a survey that some concerned doctor had forced into their hands, and the survey convinced them that something about me was a little off. To be fair, I was often getting in trouble at school for shit that I didn’t know was bad or wrong, and then instead of getting a regular punishment, I had to go see the school counselor. The school counselor at my elementary school was a distinctly ’90s woman with one of those shiny short haircuts (where she probably went into the salon and was like, “I’ll have the Winona”) and a ’90s…