Healthy Living: Benefits of Therapy

If you had a problem with learning how to eat healthily, you’d seek the advice of a nutritionist. If you’ve been exercising but not achieving the results you want, you’d probably find a trainer. If you feel sick, and want to feel better, you’d visit your doctor. Similarly if you have an overwhelming problem in your life that stresses or frustrates you, there are professionals you can seek as well – mental health therapists or counselors. There are many advantages to seeing a therapist, and in tonight’s Healthy Living, we learn three main benefits. 

Aimee Jex, Professional Counsellor, Belize Medical Associates

“Since 2013, when I started therapy, counseling, psychology, mental health has grown tremendously, by leaps and bound, I would say.”

Marleni Cuellar, Reporting

Aimee Jex is one of a small group of mental health professionals  in Belize. She says that in the past seven years, she’s seen people of all walks of life coming to her office for therapy. The most common reasons people seek her assistance if for anxiety, depression, and stress. However, these are not the only reasons people see therapists. It can also be a tool for better emotional wellness with a multitude of benefits.

Aimee Jex

Aimee Jex

“It’s similar to the nutritionist. You go, you learn and you apply it to the rest of your life. And that’s what therapy is like. It’s a funny thing because when we look at these benefits. They are overarching and they are the major benefits from counselling. They are the thing that everyone takes away. So when we look at these things, we’re looking at someone who has a diagnosis of psychosis and needs medication or someone who has stress coping with their boss at work and would normally not say I need therapy for this.”

One of the main benefits of talking to a therapist is having a sounding board.

Aimee Jex

“Sometimes, you just need to talk things out loud. You go in your head, and you walk down a path. And you realize you re so far from where you thought you were. Having a sounding board really helps you to stay on track to where you ought to bye. So when some people come into therapy, sometimes they come, and they would just be cathartic. They will spill all they’re just out and say everything, and they never go back to therapy until they get overwhelmed again. The bottle got shaken, and they’re just taking the pressure off.”

But it’s more than just talking to someone; another benefit is the opportunity for an unbiased opinion in whatever you are you may be grappling with.

Aimee Jex

“Very often people will come because they say I don’t want to talk to my mom, to my cousins I don’t want to burden my children. I don’t have anyone else to talk to. So they come to therapy for an unbiased listener.  We often realize that talking helps us it helps free our mind, it helps free unburden our soul it really does help.”

The third benefit is developing a better understanding of yourself and your emotions.

Aimee Jex

“Some people would tell you the reason I like therapy is that it helps me to understand myself a bit more.  It’s easier to be the person you use to be, it’s harder to babe the person you want to be. So every day, as you get to know yourself, you learn to be easier on yourself. You learn to be kinder to yourself, and the more you understand yourself. You learn to say you know that when I was bullied in primary school, I learned to not connect with my emotions, so I learn to shut myself off so when in marriage when my husband or wife tells me I am cold, you know it comes from the fact that I was kid ai didn’t allow people to get close to me. That is one of the things. We do we go back to figure out why you do the things you do. You get to learn more about yourself, and you get to apply your coping in a way where it makes more sense to you.”

Even as Belizeans become more open to counseling or therapy service, there are still some common misconceptions. One common one is that they expect to give advice or told what to do.

Aimee Jex

“I remember a couple coming to me saying: we will listen and do whatever you have to tell us, and I was thrown through a loop because my job again is to be a sounding board. My job is to help you get to where you want to be. It’s not to tell you that you need to do this. Or you need to do that.”

Another is that therapy is a long term process, while the therapist treats each case individually, and some will indeed require multiple sessions, some may benefit from just one.

Aimee Jex

“Even if it’s just one session, you take away from it. Just like at the nutritionist, you keep applying. You keep learning, so sometimes I have people who come to see me once every two years or once every three years, and they come back and say you know that first session. I have been using those tools throughout, but now I need something a little different.”

And lastly, some assume that it may be bee too costly. In Belize, you can see a private practitioner for roughly 60 to 100 dollars a session. But there are free counseling services available countrywide at public clinics and hospitals.