Trust the Process…What Does That Even Mean?
Written By: Jessica Eiseman, MS, LPC-S, NCC, CCTP
As Featured on Mental Health Match
“Trust the process,” they say. Even after being a therapist for over ten years now, I still question this at times. I think this is a difficult concept for a lot of people. Especially in the instant gratification era we are in. We want a quick fix and we want it NOW! While, I too, love my two-day, sometimes now one-day Amazon Prime, therapy unfortunately (fortunately?) doesn’t work in the same way.
I recently have been watching a TV show on Viceland called The Therapist. While I usually see these kinds of things, where they have a celebrity with a therapist, and scroll right on by. Something about this made me pause. I think it was The Therapist himself, Dr. Siri Sat Nam Singh, who is extremely calming and compelling. His words are very careful, but come so easily.
On one of the first episodes I watched, he reminded his client that therapy isn’t normally this huge, all of a sudden, life-changing moment. Therapy slowly creeps in, as a series of tiny moments, and over time you start to notice, “oh wait, hey, I’m different than before.”
I have to tell you, as a therapist, this is one of the most rewarding moments to see in your client. That “aha” moment where they realize that their life is so much different. I think both for the client and the therapist, it’s a good reminder that working on ourselves, changing habits, figuring ourselves out can take some time.
Quoting my new friend, Dr. Siri Sat Nam Singh, “Those who do the work not only work, but eventually the work starts to work for them.”
Are you trusting the process?
