Navigating Anxiety and Healing Through Virtual Therapy: A Journey of Growth and Self-Awareness

Learning to navigate anxiety and mental blocks while on the go has never been more accessible. Virtual therapy became my lifeline, offering unprecedented flexibility and convenience, especially for someone constantly traveling. Join me on "Have a Cup of Johanny" as I share my journey with online therapy, emphasizing the critical role of self-awareness and the importance of seeking professional help. Discover how platforms like BetterHelp have revolutionized mental healthcare, allowing for consistent and effective therapeutic relationships that can accompany you anywhere.

In this episode, we delve into the crucial moments of finding the right therapist and the powerful impact of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and mindfulness techniques in managing anxiety and past traumas. I recount how virtual therapy was instrumental in overcoming barriers that once hindered my progress, even aiding in completing my book, "Mrs. Franchi's Evil Ring." Learn how acknowledging that past trauma is not your fault can be liberating, and gain insights into why persistence in the therapeutic process is key to achieving mental wellness. If you're contemplating virtual therapy or curious about its benefits, this encouraging and insightful episode is a must-listen.

Chapters

• 0:00 Season of Growth
• 9:27 Finding Healing Through Virtual Therapy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Oh, we could, we could fly.

Speaker 2: 0:02

Welcome to this new season of the Have a Cup of Johanny podcast. So I want to title this new season that I'm embarking on with I'm growing, so this is going to be the season of growth and that's what I'm going to share with you throughout the season. So I thank you for coming over here and sitting with me and I hope you enjoy coming over here and sitting with me and I hope you enjoy.

Speaker 1: 0:28

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Have a Cup of Johanny Podcast, where every oops is really a gateway to huh okay, I see how that happened. Huh, okay, I see how that happened. All right, in this episode I'll share my experiences with virtual therapy and how it has helped me to navigate anxiety and mental blocks, and even helped me to write Mrs Franchy's Evil Ring. Are you ready? Of course you are. Why would you be here? Let's go Virtual therapy. To me, it offers a flexible and accessible way to receive professional guidance and throughout the theme of July, while we've been discussing mental care for ourselves, I started with the genesis of it all, which was through books, through self-help books, books through self-help books. But all of that really just boiled down to me identifying when what I needed was beyond the covers of those books, was beyond my own capabilities of doing it on my own, and I would say that at times that's very important and it goes with self-awareness. That's very important and it goes with self-awareness being open to give yourself that grace when you understand that something is beyond your capabilities, and really that's what happened here. I just knew I was reacting poorly and I knew that there was something wrong with that. At the same time, I didn't know how to go about helping myself and that's when it clicked on me that I needed someone else to help me navigate these emotions, these rough waters per se. So, saying that, let's explore the benefits of virtual therapy and how you can find the right therapist and techniques that have been crucial in my mental health journey.

Speaker 1: 2:48

For me, because I travel a lot, benefits of virtual therapy are really how portable this thing is for me. I can assess it. As long as I have my phone, my phone is charged and I have signal, I can assess therapy session. To me that is very convenient and, according to a study in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders, virtual therapy can be as effective as in-person therapy for treating anxiety and depression. For treating anxiety and depression, for me it has been very effective because I had a fear that, because I move around a lot for work, that I will need to rehash everything with a new therapist once I go over to my new assignment and things of that nature. So because of that, for me my first go-to was virtual therapy. I didn't try in-person therapy, it has always been virtual therapy. Just because of that, because I needed that accessibility, I needed that consistency with that person and I really wanted to build that relationship with that person so that way I can feel comfortable enough to share some things that I haven't even shared with myself in order to be able to heal from those traumatic things that I went through.

Speaker 1: 4:14

So this accessibility not just for me but for others as well, it just allows us to receive help from the comfort of our own homes, at times is from the comfort of my own car. It just depends where I am. At times it's from the airport. I had an impromptu flight. Sure enough, it was the same day as my therapist session. They said a quick hey, I'm at the airport, so I won't be able to really take your call because I'm not going to do that in front of a whole bunch of people. But you see, if I would have found a quiet space in the airport and I was in between flights and had enough time, for sure I would have taken that therapy session right then and there and go on with my life afterwards. But platforms like BetterHelp, which is what I use, talkspace and others there are so many others connect users with licensed therapists and they just they provide that experience for the client where they can have that accessibility on their phones, on their tablets, on their computer and be able to start the healing journey, the self-awareness journey, virtually.

Speaker 1: 5:32

Another thing that I found from doing this, embarking on receiving professional help, was that the first therapist was not the right therapist and that not going to lie. That almost made me want to give up on this Because, remember, I'm coming from a place when I started to do this, where I thought that perhaps I didn't need an outsider to tell me how to heal myself. It was still like at the back of my mind because I come from a household where we prayed away, right, we just got to talk to God, talk to the priest, and then we will be squared away and it will heal us. Boom, you have been healed and that's it. So even when I know that that's not necessarily true and for certain cases that's not what helps a person, still in the back of my mind, I was very my behavior, I should say it was very hesitant to receiving help.

Speaker 1: 6:37

So, of course, when I stumbled on the first therapist and not really not that we didn't click, it's just something happened there where I scheduled something for it. It was my very first, it would have been my very first session with a therapist, and then the scheduling thing, just for whatever reason, didn't happen and I was like this must be a sign, this must be a sign. But no, I went ahead and just reschedule it with somebody else. The app BetterHelp sent out a notice. I sent them a note saying that my therapist didn't show up and I think it was something with the app that was glitchy, but that, to me, kind of tainted that experience. So I wanted to try it again, but with somebody new, and that's what I did and thankfully thankfully, it was so weird. Thankfully we clicked right away and it was something that was seamless per se.

Speaker 1: 7:40

We started chatting and everything, and the way that the therapist explained to me that first conversation is just her and I getting to know one another to see if her and I can work together on this, and I like that. I like that she embarked on that as a partnership of sorts, where we come together to help me figure out how to heal myself through her questions, because she really doesn't tell me do this, do that, and then you will be healed. That was another misconception that I have. What she really does is ask me questions to where it makes me think about other things that I haven't thought about, or reframing an experience that I have in a different way, that I hadn't done it before, and just that it's. I don't want to use the word magical, because this is therapy, this is science, but it was kind of like just magical. It's like this click that happens in your brain. I know it does for me. If you have gone through this, please let me know. I really want to know your experience, but that's how it feels with me. It's this click. It's like you know, oh wow. And then you put two and two together and I think the knowledge, the story, just unfolds in a way now that is clearer in the mind's eye, unfolds in a way now that is clearer in the mind's eye, and that's why I say magical. But it's not really magical, it's just the questions that prompted me to see something from a different perspective.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Many virtual therapy platforms offer matching services and that's what happened here based on your preferences and needs. So it's this questionnaire that I answered on everything that I need, and then it matches me with someone who has that license, that certification and that experience. So if somebody is struggling with anxiety, and that's what you want to focus on, then it's going to probably give you a therapist that specializes in cognitive behavioral therapies, or CBT. The book Maybe you Should Talk to Someone can give you some insight into the therapist-client relationship and the process of finding the right fit. I do believe that this is more like a relationship when it comes to a therapist and a client that you should want to click. You should want to have a relationship with this person where you feel safe enough and comfortable enough to discuss what you need to discuss in order to work on your healing process.

Speaker 1: 10:36

In virtual therapy sessions. They introduced me to a variety of tools and techniques that have been super important in managing not just anxiety but in managing my poor self-regulation. One of those tools was CBT. That uses a lot of reframing and focuses on identifying and challenging negative thought patterns, and it goes with have you seen the situation from this perspective Kind of thing. Then, when I hear that, I imagine it differently and then that helps me to see it differently, and that has been crucial for me. That has been crucial for me because it has challenged me to stop the negative thought pattern and then replace it with a more productive one, a more positive one. And not just that. It has helped me to incorporate mindfulness practice, like guided meditation, where I can continue to feed the more productive thought patterns After going through this and practicing these techniques, because you do have to do your part right.

Speaker 1: 12:07

Talking about it helps a lot, especially at the beginning. It helps so much because it takes this weight off of your shoulder. But then, once you close that session, then it's up to the client to start working on those techniques real life as it's happening and to get back on the horse when they fall off, which it will happen. It happened to me, it still happens to me, but then I just get back in there. But the thing is like I've told you all before, it's like a habit. If you do it, oh, so many times, it will be so much more easier when you fall off the horse and then get back on it. It'll just be easier just because you have that muscle memory to do those things. And for me, I've been able to spot those negative thought patterns a whole lot easier and stopping them faster. But that is just because of the repetitions and how I've practiced those techniques. And these techniques, combined with the professional talks, have been super transformative in my mental health journey Because of embarking on this, that I was able to take this weight that was on my shoulders and was able to finish writing Mrs Franchi's Evil Ring, because I had to confront the childhood trauma I had had.

Speaker 1: 14:01

And it's so weird because writing a book and putting myself in Isla's brain, isla's nine-year-old brain that was the age that I came to the US, the age where so many things changed for me as a young child and I didn't understand any of it. And the culture shock, the parenting style going from a loving and nurturing grandmother to my dad and my stepmom, who were nowhere near that, was really traumatizing to me. But I couldn't finish writing the book because I kept hitting a block whenever I would get to certain parts with Isla's character development and Isla in certain scenes, and that was because I hadn't confronted nine-year-old Joannie yet. But when I was able to do that and talk to the therapist about it and hearing from her how none of that was my fault, none of that was my fault as a nine-year-old, you would be surprised how freeing those words are Because in a way I was holding on to the guilt, to the pain, and I had twisted it and twisted it and twisted it and just put it in this box and hid it away and told myself that I didn't remember. But I did, because then I couldn't even write what my heart was telling me to write Because I had kept that box hidden.

Speaker 1: 15:43

So it took me, talking to my therapist, to kind of like dig, get that box out, open it, untwist all the memories there and I'm still not done untwisting, by the way but then hearing those words that it was not my fault, and then feeling myself free enough to write Eastless Perspective on Mrs Franchisee Wolverine and I owe that to this, to my therapist, to virtual therapy, to myself for being able to jump in there and stick around, for something that will eventually help me out quite a lot. And it continues to do so to this day. I still have those chats, sometimes less frequent because of work, but I still have those, so that way I can continue to fight those memories, know that they're there, accept them, but understand that they no longer control me and who I am and they definitely do not determine my worth. And I was able to attain all of that through therapy, and virtual therapy for me has been a saving grace and I hope that if you're hearing this and this is you that you need some professional help and you have come to the conclusion that you need some professional help, that you seek it, that you hopefully don't become so afraid of what you may say or so embarrassed of what other people may think, and talk to that professional person so that way you, like me, can get that weight off of your shoulders and know that it was not your fault and know that you are worthy to feel happiness, to feel joy, to feel peace. All right, peeps, thank you so much for sticking with me.

Speaker 1: 17:55

So today we talked about virtual therapy and my experiences within that realm, all within the theme of mental health and mental wellness. Like I said, the benefits of virtual therapy is just its ability to be portable and accessible. Finding the right therapist, like I explained to you all, it is key because this is a relationship, a long-term relationship that you will embark on with somebody else, long-term relationship that you will embark on with somebody else. But, most importantly, the things that you get from virtual therapy are not just this talk-through of emotions, but really it is the tools, the practices, the techniques that person, or through conversation, is imparted on the client that, when practiced, pays dividend by continuing the healing process in between sessions or even when sessions are stopped. Virtual therapy to conclude, this episode has played a vital role in navigating my anxieties, my mental blocks, my writing block, my anxieties, my mental blocks, my writing block.

Speaker 1: 19:10

The convenience and accessibility of virtual therapy platforms make it easier to seek professional help. Some states have payment help when it comes to therapy, so even if someone is struggling financially, there is a way to seek mental health help through these virtual platforms. Some insurance also pay for this, and by finding the right therapist and utilizing effective techniques and mindfulness, you can make a significant stride in your mental health journey, like I did. If you've ever considered therapy but weren't sure where to start, virtual therapy I believe it's more flexible and it gives you a low-risk option. But, most importantly, if you need help, seek help and embrace that journey and remember you are worthy to find peace, to find joy, and you're not alone. Other people are here going through a similar struggle, trying to find their way as well, and I will talk to you next time. Vacitos Bye.

Speaker 2: 20:26

Thank you so much for listening. I want to hear from you. Leave me a comment, do a rating, if you can, on the podcast, share it with somebody you love, but, most importantly, come back. See you next time. Bye.