Individual Counseling Debunks Myths About Emotions

Individual counseling helps you to identify and correct inaccurate beliefs you have about your emotions that are holding you back. We all have been told throughout our lives that we must “be strong” but that has led to an epidemic of people who bottle up their emotions in unhealthy ways. Emotions serve important purposes in our lives and if they are not understood and worked through, they can cause a myriad of psychological and physical issues.

The Purpose Of Emotions

Your emotions motivate you to act, help you avoid danger, help you make decisions, help others understand you better, and help you to understand others better. Feeling anxious about a deadline can motivate you to finish a project on time. Feeling frightened tells you to leave a dangerous situation. When you’ve lost a loved one, feeling sad helps you address the loss you have experienced. When you’ve been treated badly, anger can help you decide to leave the relationship. This is all extremely valuable.

You also can’t experience happiness without experiencing sadness. We must feel negative emotions to provide context for positive ones. Suppressing negative emotions removes that context, making it more difficult for your brain to know when you should be happy and content.

Myths And Facts About Emotions

Myth: I am strong if I don’t feel or show my emotions.

Strength comes from identifying and addressing our emotions. Ignoring or suppressing emotions often causes depression and anxiety and a myriad of physical symptoms including stomach issues to chronic pain.

Myth: Showing others how you feel is a sign of weakness.

Fact: Letting others know how you feel is an important element of communication and helps you to process your emotions without letting them get the better of you.

Myth: Whatever you feel is the truth.

Fact: Just because you feel something doesn’t mean it’s real. We don’t want emotions to overwhelm us either. We can learn how they are useful for making decisions and communicating, yet they are not facts. Having feelings of worthlessness doesn’t make you worthless.

Myth: Attempting to change your feelings is inauthentic.

Fact: While it is detrimental to suppress the negative emotions we feel, accepting them can help you to transform that primary emotion into something else. Working on our persistent negative or overwhelming emotions can greatly improve our outlook and quality of life.

Individual Counseling At Take Charge, Inc.

Through counseling at Take Charge, you can learn how to bring your emotions to the front and center to be dealt with and to bring healing to your life. Terri Dichiser has a unique way of helping you not only address individual issues but open the door to expand the scope of those individual issues to incorporate the significant relationships in your life. Some or all of these relationships can play a part, whether small or significant, in the stresses in your life and how you move beyond them to a place of well-being.

Terri uses Polyvagal Theory, Somatic Experiencing and trauma informed therapy in individual counseling. Terri has completed three years of Somatic Experiencing training, Polyvagal Theory training, and attachment-based training. With the combination of training, you can learn how to deal with your nervous system including your body symptoms, emotions, and thoughts.

For more information about individual counseling in Johnson County, KS, call Take Charge, Inc. at (913) 239-8255. To schedule an appointment, click here.