Posted on: March 17, 2021 Posted by: TeaGal Comments: 0

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 

  1. We should normalize therapy.
  2. 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.