As a kid, I could have really benefited from starting therapy. One unsettling night, my parents sat me on the couch nestled between them when I had an out of control moment in junior high, and they offered me this option.

I was terrified and pleaded not to go.

In the end, they didn’t make me.

Truthfully, I don’t think we had any therapists in our small town in Northwestern Pennsylvania at the time. Though I’m sure a gander through the yellow pages would have turned up a few in the surrounding area.

But it wasn’t just location and my resistance keeping therapy away. I think it was also because with therapy came stigma.

My parents were not keep up with the Jones’s kind of people. But I also think that stigma ran deeper than that. What would mental health care mean for us as a family?

I would never really know until I decided to go to therapy at age 18.

Starting Therapy

As a freshman in college, I tried out my first therapist. I had a major traumatic event and decided I needed help. I went to one session and bailed. It felt totally unhelpful.

The adult me knows how unfortunate this decision was because I continued to flounder though masked by confidence.

Later, at age 23, my supervisor in my Social Work graduate program, who doubled as a trusted mentor, saw me falling a part and suggested I see a friend of hers. So I went. And I went again. And I spent a semester looking at my life for the first time in a new way.

I unpacked traumatic experiences, my substance use, and found strength to get through one of the most difficult times in my life.

This is just the beginning of my therapeutic journey.

One I would have been wise to start long ago.

But you don’t know what you don’t know.

And you’re not ready until you’re ready.

So if you’re on the fence, check it out. Allow yourself to be curious. Know if you don’t click with the first therapist, there’s so many more out there to try. Find your fit.

And that stigma part? In some communities and families, it still exists. But my advice, don’t let it be a barrier.

This is your life, your growth and development, and your path leading to a better future for you and the next generations.