You need permission, not prescription

Therapy is nothing more than the treatment intended to relieve or heal a problem.

It doesn’t necessarily require a clinical diagnosis, a healthcare professional, a weekly support group, an office with a couch, or a psychiatrist with a swinging pocket watch and a clipboard.

The goal of most therapy programs is basically the same. To improve your level of function so you can become the healthiest version of yourself. And long as you’re not using any behaviors that harm yourself or others, then it counts as therapy.

That’s why there’s no reason to feel embarrassed just because your particular course of treatment seems unorthodox, isn’t covered by insurance, or doesn’t make sense to others.

Listen, life is hard and we all do what we have to do to survive. Engaging in therapeutic activities that are uniquely appealing, relaxing and healing to you is your choice.

Ryan Adams, the prolific songwriter and one of my musical heroes, often talks about the power of music as his healing influence. After undergoing his high profile divorce from his celebrity wife, he turned to the therapeutic value of song to navigate his suffering. During a memorable interview, he explained his approach:

The application of doing music for a long period of time was a tool. I just went in the studio for a year. Every single day, I made whatever was on the top of my head and the outcome of that was completely hyperactive. But I wasn’t hung over, wasn’t up all morning, it was just a different energy which turned into my god. I had all this stuff to say, and I said it all.

And what’s really weird. At the very end of it, a couple of elegant things came out of it. Because I was completely exhausted. The whole mystery is, I can move through all these different forms of music, and using never ending recesses in my soul, I can express myself through whatever I impulsively feel musically.

That’s how it should be. I just lived the music. It was a safe place for me to go and it was where I wanted to be.

What activity does that for you? What would happen if you started creating from where you are, not from where you wish you were, not from where you think you should be, and not from where others wanted you to be?

If nothing comes up, then consider expanding your vision of what treatment might be for you.

It’s often a matter of permission, not prescription.

From my perspective as someone who’s spent many years combining dozens of practices to create his own individualized therapy program, here’s what you have to remember.

• Anything that takes you on an honest journey to delve into inner thoughts and emotions is therapy.
• Anything that engages your senses in a purposeful and gratifying activity is therapy.
• Anything that empowers you to creatively tap into the energy of your problem is therapy.
• Anything that enables the full spectrum of your body’s expressive faculties is therapy.
• Anything that calms the mind and helps it move out of the way is therapy.
• Anything that you practice regularly that makes your soul grow is therapy.
• And anything that helps you enjoy what was originally a source of anger or sadness is therapy.

Who cares if your friends think you’re weird for doing it? Who cares if your mother doesn’t approve because it doesn’t involve a doctor?

Just because your therapy practice is unusual doesn’t mean it’s unproductive.

It’s more permission than prescription. 

How might you create a regular experience of sincere expression to become an agent for transformation?