Investing in psychotherapy

This comic points to a couple of things that have a ring of truth: psychotherapy work can be expensive. And alcohol is a powerful drug that helps to temporarily alleviate a lot of anxiety and even depression frankly in the moment often feels more effective than the prescription pharmaceuticals…

But at what cost? Many people refer to themselves as “functional alcoholics”. This may be true but there are still long term effects that are damaging to their well-being. Increasingly research is showing that more than 2 drinks a week causes long term health damage and shortens many peoples lives.

So I encourage you to think of any money you spend on therapy work as a long term investment in your future. People who get the help of a skillful psychotherapist actually evolve into having more successful lives in all or most aspects of their lives. This leads to better outcomes not only emotionally, and psychologically but physiologically and FINANCIALLY. So INVESTING in psychotherapy is like investing in a home instead of renting: it yields long term gains that make the investment worthwhile! So do yourself a favor; don’t get caught up in the expense of psychotherapy in a way that causes you not to invest. Take the plunge and invest in a skillful psychotherapist. It is worth the investment!

As to the other statement made in the comic: that psychotherapy has gotten less expensive these days. Be careful who you invest your money in: psychotherapists you find on the on-line therapy sites are payed very little money – in the $30-$45 range. Frankly skillful therapists would rarely work for such a low fee. It’s very difficult work that requires a great deal of training and experience to help people grow in these ways and worth much more than $30/hour. So the kind of therapist you’ll find on these sites are not great. This is a good example of the saying: “you get what you pay for” You’ll end up growing very little so your investment yields far less return.