We often see therapy as important for our mental health when experiencing relationship breakups and trauma. When we attend our appointments, we can engage in talk therapy to help us through current and future personal issues. However, therapy may also help your career. When you take on your therapist’s advice and work through your problems, you might enjoy some of these unexpected career benefits:
Better Stress Management
Whether you engage in in-person or online therapy that takes insurance, you might learn how to handle your workplace stress better. In particular, you might learn how to handle pressure better without feeling overwhelmed.
Some people also learn how to enjoy work-life balance and get the most out of their personal lives by not letting their careers take over. Often, therapists use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) to help their clients with stress management. These talk- and mindfulness-based therapies teach you to identify patterns impacting behaviors and emotions. You can also learn better ways to reduce anxiety and stress.
Improved Confidence and Self-Esteem
Rarely do people attend therapy appointments to improve their confidence and self-esteem. However, it can be a happy consequence of your sessions if you put in the work.
Many mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, often originate from low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy. Individuals might discover that their personal and professional growth falter due to struggles with self-worth. Addressing these topics in therapy sessions can lead to a heightened sense of self-value. Consequently, this realization may pave the way for more substantial progress in various aspects of life. It’s beneficial to get in touch with an anxiety counseling therapist to assist you on this journey.
Therapists teach you how to explore different thoughts and feelings. The more in touch with them you are, the easier it might be to understand yourself on a new level. They might even suggest self-esteem-boosting activities like exercise, meditation, mindfulness, and hobbies. You might enjoy more confidence when you see yourself from a new perspective and challenge negative thoughts.
Better Communication Skills
Communication is a crucial skill in the workplace as an employee, a manager, or a business owner. Without communication skills, your workplace relationships can suffer. You also might not enjoy the same advancement opportunities as your better-communicating peers.
Fortunately, you can learn communication skills in a therapy setting. Therapists help people see that communication issues often come from childhood and relationships. With time, you can recognize and resolve any underlying problems. The end goal is to learn more effective communication methods.
With hard work, you can also learn how to be more assertive and refine your active listening skills. It’s also not uncommon to learn how to speak your truth in a respectful way. These newfound skills can be helpful in both professional and personal settings.
More Effective Coping Strategies
Career success isn’t linear. Many people experience setbacks and failures that they aren’t sure how to navigate while working toward their professional goals. Fortunately, you can learn valuable coping strategies with a trained therapist.
Therapists can specifically focus on helping you manage change, setbacks, and failures in your workplace more effectively. When you have new skills and techniques to fall back on, those challenges you struggled to overcome before might be much easier to manage.
Better Coping Strategies for Burnout
Workplace burnout is a real problem. In 2023, over 40% of 10,000-plus desk-based workers in six countries said they were feeling burned out by their jobs. Therapy may not be able to solve the problems at the center of your burnout. However, your therapist may provide helpful suggestions.
Rediscovering your values can often be one of the most effective strategies for coping with burnout. When you know the values that drive your decision-making and thought processes, you might be able to create better boundaries. You can then establish a better work-life balance.
They might also suggest prioritizing yourself over your work and communicating with your supervisor. Sometimes, therapists help you realize that your work environment is toxic, and a career change could be helpful.
Learning How to Set Boundaries
When you don’t have boundaries in the workplace, your career can sometimes take over your life. Many people struggle to say no and take on more work than they can comfortably achieve. This can put them at risk of burnout.
If you struggle with this problem, your therapist might help you with boundary-setting. They can guide you to pay more attention to your intuition and practice saying no to see how it feels. Most importantly, therapists can advise you that any awkwardness you feel during boundary-setting can be uncomfortable but is part of the growth process.
New Career Opportunities
Some therapy sessions can be so enlightening that clients leave feeling confident in their decision to leave their careers or change their direction. Trained therapists can be a source of wisdom in this area. They can also support you as you transition to a new job or retire from the workforce altogether.
Sometimes, it just takes someone to help you clarify your goals, priorities, and values. When you do, you can realize that your old career path is not setting you up for success. When you make this decision, therapists can support you as you enter unknown territory and become a better version of yourself.
Better Leadership Skills
Being an excellent leader isn’t just about being knowledgeable in your field. Nor is it about being good at giving people orders. The best leaders are emotionally intelligent, good communicators, empathetic and resilient. These are all learned skills that you might develop during your therapy sessions.
It can often start with self-awareness. You might learn how to identify your strengths and weaknesses in leadership. You might also identify failings that have stopped you from being a good leader. This new information may help you make impactful changes.
Therapy sessions might seem to be only for navigating challenges like breakups and traumatic events. However, they might be more helpful for career development than you think. If you discuss some of these topics with your therapist, you might be surprised by the new skills you can learn that set you up for future success.
