50 Honest Quotes About Therapy & Counseling
Getting help through therapy or counseling isn't as scary as it may seem.
Therapy — it's something that you're either in, too nervous to start, or something that you're thinking of starting. While getting help through counseling might seem intimidating at first, you'll realize how much of a life changer and saver it truly is.
It might seem like it's something that only people who need it go and do, but in all honesty, the quotes about therapy below prove that anyone and everyone that lives and breathes on this planet could benefit from talking to a licensed counselor or therapist.
With my personal experience with therapy, it's something that I've been in and out of since last year. For the time being, I attend about three times a week. In the past, I've tried going to speak to a therapist once a week, but I felt as if something was missing and I would avoid talking as much. At first, I was a little too shy to be in therapy because I thought that I was going to be judged just for showing up, but that wasn't the case — my therapist was a nice woman that would remind me that I'm not a trash can, despite what I think and say about myself.
Nobody's going to have the same experience as you, and no one has the same needs as you. One person may need therapy twice a week and can only afford it if insurance pays for it, while another person might need therapy once a week and can afford to pay out of pocket for it. Most therapists tend to have a sliding scale, so it's worth asking to see what they can do without having you go into debt or put you in a bad financial situation.
It might take a while before you find "the one" — the right therapist — and that's completely fine.
You shouldn't feel pressured to work with someone just because they're friendly or are in your price range. I can guarantee you that there are a lot of therapists that are in your price range and that also meet your other outlying criteria, so don't settle for someone that's simply not doing their job.
When looking for a therapist, you want to be comfortable around them. It might take a while, but if you're still tense around them after a few months, then they might not be the one for you. Therapy is something that should be therapeutic, and if it's not, then it's time to go find a new therapist.
While I can't tell you about how your therapy sessions go, the following quotes might be able to do just that. Therapy can be hard to adapt to, as you'll see by some of the quotes below, and it's not always for everyone. But I handpicked some of my favorite accurate and honest quotes about therapy that should be easy to relate to, and they should give you a good sense of what therapy can be like for different people.
1. "Encouragement to all women is - let us try to offer help before we have to offer therapy. That is to say, let's see if we can't prevent being ill by trying to offer a love of prevention before the illness." - Maya Angelou
2. "Everybody who cares about me wants me to do therapy, but I just can't do therapy." - Lil Peep
3. "I briefly did therapy, but after a while, I realized it is just like a farmer complaining about the weather. You can't fix the weather - you just have to get on with it." - Douglas Adams
4. "I think if I took therapy, the doctor would quit. He'd just pick up the couch and walk out of the room." - Don Rickles
5. "Artists need some kind of stimulating experience a lot of times, which crystallizes when you sing about it or paint it or sculpt it. You mold the experience the way you want. It's therapy." -Erykah Badu
6. "I've tried everything. I've done therapy, I've done colonics. I went to a psychic who had me running around town buying pieces of ribbon to fill in the colors of my aura. Did the Prozac thing." - Jim Carey
7. ""Through therapy and a lot of thinking and writing my memoirs, I've been able to use my life as a lesson." - Jane Fonda
8. "Using no control and using humor will build a relationship and make a dent to where the client puts the counselor in their quality world and then begins to relate and seek out the counselor. Effective therapy begins with the acceptance of the therapist into the client's quality world." - William Glasser
9. "I used music as therapy and embraced being a cry baby." - Melanie Martinez
10. "In therapy, I have learned the importance of keeping spiritual life and professional life balanced. I need to regain my balance." - Tiger Woods
11. "Positive psychology is not remotely intended to replace therapy or pharmacology. So when depressed, anxious, or in panic or post-traumatic stress disorder, I am all for therapies that will work. Positive psychology is another arrow in the quiver of public policy and psychology through which we can raise wellbeing above zero." - Martin Seligman
12. "For whatever reason, I tend to get reporters who are maybe in the middle of intense therapy, and they turn what's supposed to be a professional interview into therapy for themselves." - Douglas Coupland
13. "Psychoanalysis - and any good therapy - is a method of increasing one's awareness of destiny to increase one's experience of freedom." - Rollo May
14. "Therapy and counseling can do wonderful things for people. But they have emerged so far as what is sometimes called 'cottage industries' - that is, as individuals or small groups offering generally quite expensive services to a few clients." - Alain de Botton
15. "Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic, and fear which is inherent in a human situation." - Graham Greene
16. "I had a few problems. I didn't realize it until I started going to therapy. I did it for 10 years, two days a week, and pretty quickly I understood that a lot of my suffering, many of my issues, were rooted in my realizing that I was gay when I was a little boy. I knew I was different. That made me very fragile" - Stefano Gabbana
17. "I always had a dissociative disorder. But I healed from it over 14 years of big-time therapy. But, you know, I mean, everybody's kind of loony now. So I was kind of a pioneer in the mental illness thing, too." - Roseanne Barr
18. "I've never found therapy to be a sign of weakness; I've found the opposite to be true. The willingness to have a mirror held up to you requires strength." - Brooke Shields
19. "I thought foolishly that Freudian psychoanalysis was deeper and more intensive than other, more directive forms of therapy, so I was trained in it and practiced it." - Albert Ellis
20. "I go to therapy a lot. And I'm - I'm open about that, and I try to get the help so that I - so that I can cope and - and make my way in life and with my family." - Howie Mandel
21. "I would say that I began with a very edgy, very driven personality, and after a sufficient amount of therapy over many, many years, I managed to become rather relaxed and happy." - John Cleese
22. "Since I began my practice of Forgiveness Therapy, it's now instinctual for me to choose to eat as I love myself - instead of eating like I wanted to punish myself. Plus I've not only lost weight, but I've also lost the anger and anxiety I was feeling, and so I feel happier and calmer within." - Karen Salmansohn
23. "I consistently go to therapy and work on this one issue. I've devoted an hour every two weeks to ask, 'How do I be a workaholic, do what we love to do, and not die of a heart attack, destroy myself and my family, and keep my friends?'" - Mark Duplass
24. "I used to be pretty hard on myself, like, if I didn't like a haircut I did on someone, I would think about it a lot and second-guess myself. But after therapy and a lot of work, I know how to dust myself off a lot faster, and those things don't knock me down as much as they used to." - Jonathan Van Ness
25. "The best therapy is the more aggressive kind when they break you open; they unleash you." - Cara Delevinge
26. "I think therapy is a helpful thing. I think everyone knows it. You do it for your life, you do it for yourself because you want to explore some things, and get at the bottom of some things. It's about your life, the quality of your life." - Philip Seymour Hoffman
27. "I'm a massive scaredy-cat. I'm scared of being in a fast car, I'm scared of being on a rollercoaster, I would never go skiing, I would never do anything that had the possibility of endangering my life in any way. I should get some therapy, really." - Sharon Horgan
28. "I was going mad. One day, I just started writing, and it was like therapy because I was in a position where I couldn't rage. I never expected to be a writer; it's a different world than I ever expected to be in." - John Trudell
29. "As a child, I was not allowed to express my feelings, so I had to go back through therapy and express the child's pain." - John Bradshaw
30. "The ultimate goal of therapy... it's too hard a question. The words come to me like tranquility, like fulfillment, like realizing your potential." - Irvin D. Yalom
31. "I think everybody I've seen has come from some other therapy, and almost invariably, it's very much the same thing: the therapist is too disinterested, a little too aloof, a little too inactive. They're not really interested in the person; he doesn't relate to the person." - Irvin D. Yalom
32. "This is really America in therapy, people trying to get themselves together and be whole." - David Viscott
33. "I hope I am a psychotherapist's dream. I've spent enough hours in therapy." - Sia
34. "I got problems. I freak out, go to a shrink, go through all kinds of therapy and stuff, but I'm learning how to deal with it. That's why I've chosen one hour a night to get all of my aggression out. to really tell the world the way I feel." - Jonathan Davis
35. "If you have a relative who's lost interest in everything and doesn't get out of bed, who doesn't care for things they used to, can't imagine anything that would give them any pleasure, don't fool around with it; get therapy, get help, get medication if that's right for you, or talk therapy, or something." - Dick Cavett
36. "I didn't learn about depression or anxiety at school. So when I had to go to my parents to say 'I need help, I need to go to therapy,' I felt like this weird, messed up kid. And I wasn't, but I felt that way." - Lili Reinhart
37. "I think psychology still has sway over everything we do, but music, in and of itself, is the therapy." - Curt Smith
38. "I had massive anxiety as a child. I was in therapy. From 8 to 10, I was borderline agoraphobic. I could not leave my mom's side. I don't really have panic attacks anymore, but I had really bad anxiety." - Emma Stone
39. "I spend a good deal of time doing, for anxiety what's known as exposure therapy where basically you're supposed to confront things that cause you anxiety and learn to tolerate. It's all about learning to tolerate discomfort rather than avoiding anything that might make you feel uncomfortable." - Porter Robinson
40. "I think black men especially should go to therapy and seek out mental help because we need it. Even if you don't think you need it, we need it." - Charlamagne Tha God
41. "I definitely think that prescription drugs, like antidepressants, are prescribed so cavalierly, anyone can get anything, but I need it. I do think that it needs to work hand and hand with therapy." - Sarah Silverman
42. "You know I think that going into therapy is a very positive thing, and talking about it is really helpful because the more you talk the more your fears fade because you get it out." - Fran Drescher
43. "I've spent years in therapy excavating my endless, often fruitless drive to overachieve. I have learned that being successful hasn't made me happy. It's just made me successful. I even call myself a recovering overachiever." - Rachel Simmons
44. "I am actually going to two therapists right now. I don't know, I actually feel like therapy has just made me more uncomfortable." - Jesse Eisenberg
45. "I believe in therapy, and I believe an objective opinion sometimes helps you be a better person." - Damon Dash
46. "An essential question regarding treatment is whether psychodynamic therapy is effective for specific disorders." - Robert J. Waldinger
47. "The first time I went to therapy, I had to stop going because they were making me hate my parents." - Chloe Sevigny
48. "It's such a private thing - 'my process' - I can just say that the work that I do is like therapy between me and the character." - Kirsten Dunst
49. "Therapy, as opposed to analysis, is a whole construct of myth, beautiful and creative." - Dennis Potter
50. "I'm on a constant path of self-discovery and change. I'm trying to become a better person, a nicer person. I love therapy - it's brilliant." - Julia Sawalha
Liz Abere is a writer that talks about food, love, and mental health.