Empowering Your Journey to Wellness through Psychoeducation

Let’s be honest, the word therapy still raises eyebrows. For some, it conjures images of lying on a couch while someone silently scribbles notes. For others, it is dismissed as a bit woo woo, a soft and overly emotional exercise in talking about your feelings with no clear purpose.
But is that really what therapy is?

I trained as a relationship therapist and have since developed an integrative approach that includes tools from cognitive behavioural therapy. The work is grounded, structured, and focused on real change. It is not about vague ideas or magical thinking. It is about helping people understand themselves, their patterns, and the stories they carry. Many of those stories were formed in response to pain, protection, or survival.

We do not just sit and listen. We are trained to listen in a very specific and intentional way. Laurence Spurling describes therapeutic helping as being less about what you do and more about how you do it. It is the quality of attention that matters. That kind of presence, which is curious, emotionally available and non-judgemental, is rare in everyday life. And it can be life-changing.

Therapy is deeply human. It builds on something most of us already do when we are truly present with someone who is in pain. The difference is that therapy offers structure. It creates a space where care is held within boundaries and supported by knowledge that helps people make sense of their inner world. As Spurling explains, the therapeutic exists in ordinary moments, such as a mother tending to her child. Therapy takes that kind of care and gives it clarity, direction, and depth.

Therapists are not just trained to help. We are also required to understand our own emotional world. To qualify, I needed to be in therapy myself for a minimum of three years. This is not a formality. It is an ethical responsibility. If I have not faced my own blind spots and emotional patterns, I cannot hope to sit with someone else’s.

My work is also informed by the psychosocial realities of identity. Race, gender, class, and culture shape the way people relate, survive and make sense of the world. As a woman of colour, I have never seen myself reflected in the classical psychoanalytic texts I was trained in. That has taught me to read critically, to ask better questions, and to create a space that welcomes the whole person rather than fragments of them.

So what actually happens in therapy? People begin to hear themselves. They connect the dots between past and present. They find language for feelings that were once buried. They begin to question shame and reimagine who they are. There is room for silence, laughter, grief, frustration, and eventually, clarity. And perhaps for the first time, they feel seen. For many, that alone changes everything.

So no, therapy is not woo woo. It is not magic. But it is meaningful. It is a relationship built on care, curiosity, and the courage to look inward. And that is something worth trusting in.