Therapy Rituals
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I always buy an Iced Dirty Chai Latte before heading therapy.
I always schedule my therapy at 10:00 am on Sunday.
& I always listen to a podcast that hits my soul on the drive to my therapist’s office.
This is not about routine, predictability or control; it’s a ritual that I do to put myself in the headspace to address anything and everything that is going on inside my brain.
My mind is active. I feel many feelings, and I used to approach things in a very toxic way; therapy helped with that, cleared up some space and gave me tools to understand and make connections.
I grew up with the therapy stereotype, I live in an area where the therapy stereotype still exists, but that does not stop me from casually bringing up that I am in therapy or referring to what my therapist said because
- We should normalize therapy.
- The face people make, the discomfort that people feel and show on their face is hilarious.
When I first started, I didn’t have this ritual set up, and I found I was distraught, disorganized and my sessions would just be complaining about whatever happened that week without digging deeper. I wasn’t able to focus because there was too much going on.
I then started incorporating different rituals to see which one helped me get into the flow of things, process the information and understand what I really needed to focus on to feel lifted and target what needed to be addressed.
It was coffee. Reading. I used to go into the bookstore beside her office and look for a new book, but that was more painful on my wallet, so I took that ritual out.
Eventually, I narrowed it down to:
I always buy an Iced Dirty Chai Latte before heading therapy.
I always schedule my therapy at 10:00 am on Sunday.
& I always listen to a podcast that hits my soul on the drive to my therapist’s office.
Sometimes I will bring a book just if I am early and need to wait in the waiting area, but this ritual that I have put in place allowed me to reflect on what’s important and what needs to be deconstructed.
This ritual helps me go into each appointment with intention and growth.