I’m so privileged; I feel guilty for needing therapy.
If you feel guilty for needing therapy, if you feel wrong for complaining when you identify as being privileged, today’s post is for you.
I’m so privileged; I feel guilty for needing therapy.
One of the more common things we hear from our clients at our therapy center is some iteration of this:
“I’m so privileged; I feel guilty for needing therapy.”
“What right do I have to complain when people have it so much worse?’
“I’m alive and not dead. Shouldn’t I be more grateful? Why does this still feel so hard?”
These are such incredibly common thoughts and experiences for our clients.
The bottom line is this: most people who come to our therapy center are, indeed, privileged in some way.
They have access to health insurance, they don’t have bombs falling on their head and they don’t have to be concerned about ISIS ripping them or their children out of their beds at night.
Objectively, yes, the therapy clients we see here in the Bay Area ARE privileged. And so are we as the therapists at Evergreen Counseling.
On both sides of the couch, we are privileged.
BUT, that absolutely does not mean that you don’t get to have emotional distress.
Your privilege does not preclude suffering.
Both things can be true: you can be privileged and you can still be in distress.
It’s not either/or.
It’s both/and.
And here’s something else we tell our therapy clients: Because you are privileged, you deserve to seek out and utilize therapy even more.
Why?
Because with our privilege we can access the resource of therapy to help us work through painful, possibly limiting issues showing up in our personal lives.
When we do this, when we can face our childhood trauma (which, yes, you can have even when you’re privileged), when you can make a grounded, informed decision about your relationship which is causing you so much angst, when you can get your anxiety and depression under control, there will be more of you to show up for your life.
While therapy isn’t a silver bullet and doesn’t come with guaranteed results, you can absolutely imagine that therapy can support you in becoming more emotionally stable, more esteemed and confident in your life, therapy can teach you how to recognize and seek out healthier, more functional relationships, and therapy can even help you work through tricky and stick work situations.
Therapy helps you feel more grounded and capable in the world.
With these kinds of results plus coming from a position of privilege, you can have a bigger impact on not only your own life, but on the lives of others who may not be as privileged.
Therapy may be a privilege, yes, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t get to seek it out or have hard feelings.
Life is not black and white; it’s grey. Life is not either/or, it’s both/and.
You can be privileged and be in emotional pain.
And if you are, if you see yourself in this post, we hope that you’ll reach out to us so we can be of support to you.
Here at Evergreen, we do screening consult calls with anyone and everyone who reaches out to us so we can assess exactly who the best-fitting therapist for you might be.
If you’re curious about starting therapy again and getting some support and you would like to be matched to the best-fitting therapist for you, please schedule a consult call with our clinical intake coordinator so we can be of support to you right away. And/or, you can browse the bios of the therapists we have at our center and book a first session right away.
If you’re curious about starting therapy again and getting some support, please feel free to reach out to us to set up a complimentary consult call so we can match you with the best therapist for your situation or book a first session right away.
