Throughout a lifetime, you’ll have more than your fair share of major events, both good and bad. Every person will deal with these differently, but some recommendations are universal, including psychotherapy. When you’re facing a significant life event, therapy can help you manage your mental health, sort through whatever thoughts swirl through your mind about these sudden modifications, and cope with even the most substantial change to your status quo.
Divorce
The end of any relationship requires a big adjustment, but the end of a marriage is by far the most jarring. Whether it’s been a long time coming or the divorce is completely unexpected, it overturns your life and does so, even more, when you have to think about child custody. Time spent in divorce hearings or amending custody agreements is never fun but, with the help of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and a qualified mental health professional with the experience and compassion you need, these custody hearings can be a little less painful.
Moving
Whether you’re moving for work reasons, to be closer to family, or just for the substantial change of pace, this is a life event that has a sort of domino effect. Suddenly, you’re in a new place, surrounded by new people. It’s natural to miss the friends, family, and local hotspots you left behind. For example, if you’re moving into New York City, you might research therapists in Manhattan before you get there, especially if you expect you might struggle with adjusting to life in the Big Apple.
Job Transitions
Even if you don’t need to move for a job change, it’s still a significant adjustment you’ll have to make. Between choosing the best womens tops for the office and the stationery you’ll need to do your job best, consider shopping for a therapist, too. Moving into a new role or transitioning to a new career path, it’s natural to feel nervous. Through psychotherapy such as CBT, a mental health professional can help you focus on the facts—like the knowledge that your employer wouldn’t offer you this position if they didn’t see your unique strengths as an asset—and develop new, healthier behaviors.
Diagnoses
Finding out you have an illness, regardless of severity, can bring about a lot of emotions. A psychotherapist will come to your session with years of experience behind them, having helped patients navigate stressors from cancer treatment and coping with chronic illness to recovering from substance abuse and understanding mental health conditions. The proper guidance can make your health concerns less overwhelming.
Trauma
From domestic abuse to natural disasters, many traumatic events can impact the individual in question. Cognitive behavior therapy and other treatments can help you to manage those moments, letting you work through whatever concerns come up along the way. Counseling will help you deal with the consequences of circumstances that simply can’t be avoided, making it easier to manage their aftermath, whether that’s finding healthy coping mechanisms or dealing with PTSD.
Loss
Grief is never easy, but dialectical behavior therapy, CBT, and other psychotherapy methods can help you manage mourning a family member or a dear friend. Losing a loved one is one of the most painful life transitions a person can undergo, whether that loss comes through death or another situation, like divorce. Any kind of loss brings about major change and, with their years of experience, the right therapist can help you navigate that change with less of a negative impact.
Parenting Changes
From modifications in child custody arrangements to the significant change that inevitably comes as a child ages, transitions are an inevitable part of raising a child. Parenting offers distinct individual needs for different children, their relationship with their parents, and the stage of life they’re currently in. A teenager will inevitably have different needs than a toddler, and a custody arrangement will add further modifications to the family dynamic. A child-parent relationship will change when your teen realizes they’re LGBTQ+, or your relationship status with their other parent is altered, like after a divorce.
Injury
Like a diagnosis or trauma, an unexpected injury will offer its own sort of not-so-positive change. From working through physical therapy to overall pain and discomfort, severe injury can force you into a new way of life. As your physical therapist helps you navigate and improve mobility limitations, your counselor or psychotherapist can help you understand the emotions that come up along the way, be it low self-esteem or struggling to accept this change.
From adjusting to the “new normal” in you and your child’s life after divorce or as your little one grows to learning to cope with low self-esteem after trauma, illness, or injury. Life events bring about major and minor changes alike, and each offers unique stipulations that change how you’ll move through life. A psychotherapist provides a safe space for you to deal with the inevitable modifications to your life, offering CBT, DBT, and other methods that you can use to cope with not just your current changes but those that arise in years to come.