Since returning to face-to-face therapy I have been encouraged by the number of people who are beginning to re-evaluate attitudes towards mental health and counselling – led the way by the younger generation.
Despite great progress being made, the stigma around seeking help for one’s mental and emotional wellbeing remains highly prevalent in society, particularly in the 40+ age group.
In general, it’s the next gen who are leading the way in changing this and normalising therapy.
Hadyn Williams, CEO of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), recently said: “Cultural change doesn’t happen immediately. The reasons for this go back a long way. Twenty years ago, organisations like the BACP began to champion counselling in schools, which means seeking help is normalised for younger people. Now in their 20s and early 30s, they have benefited from this counselling, so they feel it is a normal thing to do.”
Stateside, the American Psychiatric Association recently reported that 37% of Gen Z have sought counselling, followed closely by millennials at 35%.”
What’s just as encouraging for me are the reasons why youngsters are seeking to enter therapy – viewing mental health as something that needs to be maintained rather than attended to in a crisis.
I work with a lot of students. They go to university or college to study a certain subject, then come to therapy to study themselves.
They’re wanting to use the therapeutic space for self-improvement, to better themselves as individuals and improve how they are in relationships.
Their aim is to explore and understand themselves and their life experiences better – effectively heighten self-awareness levels.
Put simply, they are not reaching a crisis point before seeking help. It’s a real shift in how the therapeutic space is being used and changing attitudes towards counselling.
THE COVID PANDEMIC AND LOCKDOWNS
As well as this, and across all generations, people have used the past two years and COVID-lockdowns to reflect on what their priorities are in life, effectively doing a self-audit on what really matters to them.
The seemingly ‘welcome distraction’ of modern 24/7 lifestyles was put on hold, which forced or encouraged many to confront the realities of how important mental and emotional wellbeing is.
As a result people are now entering therapy for deeper self-examination and reflection, to explore new possibilities and priorities. A confidential therapeutic space helps greatly in this process.
All this is a re-evaluation of how society views therapy. And as a positive consequence, the cultural shift will reduce the risk of people reaching a crisis point in the future before seeking help.
‘I wish I had come to therapy sooner,’ is a phrase which I’ve heard many times.
Hopefully that’s something I’ll begin to hear less and less as therapy becomes increasingly mainstream.
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If you are interested in starting counselling, you can email me on andywestoncounselling@gmail.com
More information about me can be found, here.