You have tried to solve the problem on your own and have noticed that the issue (symptoms, behaviors, problems) keeps returning despite your efforts:

Usually people enter therapy only after they have tried to make improvements on their own.  I can’t think of a client who has not tried extremely hard prior to calling me.

Others close to you have suggested to you to seek help:,

Research has shown quite convincingly that others can, in many situations, be better judges of our behavior than we are.  This can be a difficult thing to accept:  it is human nature to want to believe that we are aware of all of our struggles, however, the reality is that even the most self aware people have their blind spots.  If your friends and family are concerned enough to share their observations such as depression, anxiety, worry, relationship problems, etc, take them seriously, they may be noticing something important.

You have questions and concerns that your friends and family can’t answer to your satisfaction:

Most people turn to friends and family first for help.  In many cases this is very helpful, but in others cases, people experience their friends’ and families’ advice and perspectives as  well intentioned but not overly helpful.  Sometimes friends and family are just “too close” to you to offer the unbiased perspective that you need.   I often joke with my own friends and family that I am much more helpful to my clients than I am with them.

You have a gut feeling something is “off” but aren’t sure what it is:

Listen to this!  Although others can be better than we are at noticing and predicting our behaviors, we are the experts on what we are feeling.  Gut feelings are huge indicators and in my opinion should be taken seriously.  Therapy is a place where you can explore where this feeling is coming from and then make a determination whether or not it warrants further attention.

This is your Brain on Psychotherapy

Even though many people might know next to nothing about neuroscience most people have at least an inkling that medications like Prozac, Zoloft, Abilify, etc cause some kind of biochemical change in the brain.  New brain scans, similar to the one above, offer us the ability to visually witness changes in brain activity by comparing brain scans of patients before medication and while on medication.

What you may not know, is that these same hi-tech imaging studies are also revealing evidence that suggests that the brain also undergoes similar neurological changes (i.e. improved functioning) as a result of psychotherapy.    In a recent study (y Helen Mayberg, M.D., and colleagues, who used similar scans in 17 unmedicated patients with major depression before and after they had 15 to 20 sessions of psychotherapy.  She also compared the scans with those of 13 patients who were already successfully treated with antidepressant medication alone.  What she found was that both groups saw a reduction in depression and both groups showed significant changes in brain activity on the brain scan.

These  findings are exciting, and also make intuitive sense to me.  We know that experience alters the brain.  When we learn to ride a bike, we form new neural connections in the brain which allow us to ride the bike.  These new connections also allows us to remember how to ride again in the future. Psychotherapy is an experience, except we aren’t learning how to ride a bike.  We are modifying thoughts, beliefs, and expectations.  We are identifying, practicing, and learning new ways of being in the world.  As we do this, we are changing our brains in a way that will allow us not only to feel better in the moment, but perhaps just as importantly, to “remember” how to feel better in the future.