Self-Care in Between Therapy

Self-care between your therapy sessions is one way to apply what your therapist has advised you to do. You can use self-care to help rid yourself of the stress and anxieties on your journey towards your mental health and life goals. If your therapy journey is a new concept, it can be scary to navigate around the experience. Still, you can implement these self-care tasks in your everyday life to help strengthen your dedication to your therapy. 

Therapy isn’t easy

The healing process isn’t a pretty path to walk at first, and not every therapy session you have is going to be an easy one. For example, you may be feeling the emotions of a hard session and can’t talk about those feelings until your next session. If that rings true for you, self-care can help you get through those days. Be sure to tell your therapist! That way, you can work with them and come up with ways to help you in that time.

Think of the time apart from therapy as your opportunity to put into effect your therapist’s advice and start working on those improvement goals. However, it’s essential to take time to care for yourself as well. Start by setting specific days between sessions to do specific things that make you feel good or bring you joy and comfort. Some people do some of these things:

Keeping a journal 

When your mind is busy, it’s hard to focus on our day-to-day. Keeping a journal is a great way to work through emotions, anxieties, or fears you may have. You can write down a few words or fill up ten pages; this is your place to let all those thoughts out. It can be your safe space away from therapy. Try to write in your journal every day; although it’s unnecessary to keep up with it daily has its pros. Whether it’s a week, month, year, or years later, you can look back on journal entries and see how far you have come, and pick up old goals you never completed. 

Breath Work & Gratitude

Doing breathing exercises is an effective way to get through anxiety when it becomes too much to handle. By doing this, you can become calm. Start by finding a quiet place to sit down upright – this can be on the floor or a chair. Next, close your eyes and draw your attention to your breathing. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, and let it out. As you let go of your breath, say things you are thankful for or affirmations. Practice this as necessary. 

Read a book

Have you been waiting to read that book? Well, this is your sign! Find a quiet and comfortable space to read in. Reading self-improvement books can help aid you in continuing your wellness journey. Reading strengthens the neural pathways of our brains while simultaneously lowering the heart rate and blood pressure. Additionally, studies have shown, that reading only 6 min help improve your sleep, stress and provide mental acuity.  

Find additonal support

Find someone you are comfortable with as support partner. This can be a family member, a friend you can talk to when you’re not at therapy. Furthermore, there are plenty of online options for support hotlines that you can reach out to if it gets bad for you. You can visit Mental Health America, which offers online groups for just about everyone depending on their needs. You are not alone and don’t have to be.

Therapy isn’t a walk in the park, and it takes dedication outside of your sessions. While it can be a challenging journey, there are so many self-care options that you can do in between your therapy sessions to help get through until your next one. For example, you can enlist a second therapist in a journal, find a book you get lost in, or talk to a friend about what you’re going through. While the journey is long, you don’t have to do everything alone. 

At Mountain Vista Psychology, we can help you work through your anxiety and teach you how to overcome it. Our therapists are ready to talk. For a FREE consult, email us at info@mountainvistapsychology.com or call us at 720-583-9339.