By Becky Brown and Deb Williams

Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t need to have a diagnosed mental health problem to go to therapy. You also don’t need to be going through a major life crisis to want to speak to someone about an issue that is on your mind.

People may be most inclined to try therapy when they’re in crisis or during a stressful life event, such as a bereavement. However, there is no one definition of a stressful life event — and we all have unique triggers. Therapists can help us make decisions regarding work, relationships and other common issues. It’s also OK to start therapy just because you think you need a little extra help, even if you’re not sure why.

Talking to a therapist can help you to sort out your feelings and release pent-up emotions or secrets that you haven’t felt free to share with anyone else. Therapy can help you uncover your dreams and goals, so you can work toward achieving your full potential.

Therapy may help you resolve conflicts; relieve anxiety or stress; cope with major life changes; learn to manage unhealthy reactions; come to terms with an ongoing or serious health issue; recover from physical or sexual abuse or witnessing trauma; cope with sexual problems; sleep better.

Some reasons you can benefit from therapy — even if you don’t have a mental illness.

It can help you learn to love yourself. Therapy promotes tools that can improve your relationship with yourself and your brain, something that everyone can benefit from.

It allows you to speak to someone objective about your problems. A therapist doesn’t have any preconceived notions about you nor any personal stake. You can trust them to keep your secrets and allow you to speak freely, letting you get as objective an opinion as possible.

It helps make the good things in your life great. Talking about the relationships and things in your life that already make you happy can allow you to be even happier with them.

It can help you navigate some big life choices. We all experience issues at some point in our lives, whether it be a bad breakup, a stressful work situation, or family difficulties. Talking to someone who is trained in handling emotions and working out problems can be extremely beneficial in these scenarios.

It can help you express yourself in a healthy way. Therapy is a great setting to express yourself freely, and then learn the skills to turn those raw thoughts into effective communication.

It can teach you how to talk about uncomfortable things. For many, having uncomfortable feelings or dealing with tricky situations makes them want to run and hide. Therapy is all about not only discussing some possible uncomfortable things and really sitting with it. Having this experience can really allow you to be OK sitting in the discomfort.

It can allow you to build better relationships.

It can help you identify personal patterns. It can be very difficult to take an objective look at your own decisions and see patterns in them. Once a therapist gets to know you better, they can identify patterns in your way of thinking and explain them to you. Once you get more in touch with your own patterns and the way you view things, you are more likely to identify them in real life and work to end the negative ones.

It can ensure someone is always in your corner. The therapist relationship is based on someone being there for you where you don’t have to give back or take care of them, ‘they aren’t there to make you feel good or sign off on your crap, but to help you gain insight into your behavior and reactions, even when this is hard to hear.’ The therapist desires to help you obtain your goals, improve the quality of your life and relationships and to support you through thick and thin. It’s something that’s worth trying, even when all you really need is someone to talk to.

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Becky Brown and Deb Williams are the cofounders of Together We Can, a mental health peer support nonprofit based in Marshalltown.