Thoughts on Therapy in 2026

Thoughts on Therapy in 2026 
My first experience as a therapy client 
I remember sitting in a huge therapy room as a child, surrounded by toys, mom and sibling near me. It was a male therapist, we were discovering our parents were divorcing. I only remember two things; not feeling comfortable and the intersection on the way out. I did not want to talk to the therapist. I was slightly interested in the toys. 

Personal therapy journey 
Since, I have had many-a-therapy experiences. In early high school after a break up, (she told me to take a bubble bath, so not my thing as a teen), in the guidance counselor’s office after behavior issues, as a young adult in a Christian group practice for “sexual” concerns aka porn use, another I attended maybe two sessions with (no connection), premarital counseling, required counseling in grad school, and then one who became my “Pennsylvania” therapist after marriage and then, one who became my “Ohio” therapist after we moved. I also worked with an internal family systems practitioner weekly for three months as well as a postpartum therapist until after a handful of sessions they realized my insurance was not accepted. (insurance…) I now work with a former child therapist who has since released her clinical license and is a somatic coach. 

Client chair 
I have been in the client chair for countless hours. Investing time, money, energy, vulnerability in hopes of “feeling better.” And I don’t know how to say this is the kindest, most generous way, but what I want to say is that not every client chair is created equal. Therapy experiences for clients range on a spectrum from traumatic to freeing. The Ohio counseling board sends out quarterly newsletters with names of therapists who have had their licenses suspended or revoked. Therapists are humans, who need to remain engaged in healing practices, so our “stuff” does not harm our clients and if and when it does, we need the capacity to acknowledge and repair. 

Therapy trauma 
In my therapy work, and as I’ve heard from clients and colleagues, I wonder if therapy trauma will become a speciality due to stories I’ve heard and the impact on clients. As someone who specializes in spiritual trauma, it feels similar to me. You come to someone hoping for help, healing, clarity and you leave feeling shattered, wounded, violated or abused. So much cringe and heartache on my end when I ponder this, just so not okay. The field needs to make changes to support therapists so they can afford and receive the help they need to continue becoming whole. Some quick ideas of changes; PAID internships so therapists in training can afford their bills, personal therapy, quality supervision and so on. Graduate programs and internship facilitators need to receive the support they need to give courageous, honest feedback to students about their concerns with the students skills or lack thereof, in the clinical and classroom settings. The field needs to DISMANTLE the narrative of the therapist as “expert.” Clients will sit in the client chair for hours on end, not sure if anything is helping, but believing the “therapist knows what they are doing,” and shut down their concerns or issues and default to the therapist “expert” instead. Clients need to be educated on their right to question the therapist’s methods, intentions and thoughts on the path forward. Couples therapy needs to incorporate Terry Real’s ideas about taking sides when someone is not being relational and addressing patriarchy, instead of appeasing one of the partners. 

Ok, that being said. More thoughts on therapy. 
I graduated with my masters in counseling in 2015 and here are some things I’ve realized since.

Therapy is not just talking 
If you’ve spent most of your therapy sessions talking AND it’s felt helpful, score! I find, however, in my personal work and professional work with clients, that it’s more effective to shift from talking to “going inside,” whether through somatics, parts work or EMDR. A whole session of talking may not be providing a NEW experience for our nervous system to internalize and therefore shift how we feel and see the “problem.” 

Therapy is not being told to take deep breaths, take a bubble bath and to go journal 
We all know these things, you don’t need to pay a therapist to tell you this. Sure, these may come up as recommendations to build a relationship with yourself and in my therapy work we practice breathwork and I encourage clients to invite pleasure into their daily life. However, the goal of therapy is to help you create a SECURE ATTACHMENT to yourself and it’s so much deeper than being given advice we’d get from AI and google. 

Therapy is not the end all, be all
I must admit, this one stings a bit for me, personally. I think it’s because I’ve always searched for the “thing.” For a long time it was an evangelical church. Then therapy. It’s been hope in books, courses, experts. And I’ve come to realize that even therapy is not enough. Therapy is often stripped from other life giving elements; the spiritual realm, music, art, nature, ancestors, our body. We need a taste of these in our lives, also. I think the therapy field would benefit from intentionally and respectfully incorporating these into dialogue and experiences with clients. 

Therapists are struggling and need support 
If you think your therapist is rollin’ in it, they’re probably not. Being a therapist does come with some level of privilege because it means you were able to afford completing an UNPAID internship, however therapists’ incomes don’t typically reflect their level of education, experience, let alone the emotional toll of the field. If you go on a therapist reddit thread, it does not take long to see that therapists are struggling and need support. Most therapy agencies give therapists unrealistic and unfair caseloads because the healthcare system is just… the healthcare system. So therapists end up with clients they don’t feel competent treating with a lack of bandwidth to invest in the supervision and training they need. In private practice therapists wrestle with the insurance demands, paperwork and administration responsibilities and seeing enough clients to make ends meet while trying to also have a life. If you’re a therapist reading this and resonating, my first recommendation of unsolicited advice is to find a therapist friend and spend time together to chat about these things. If you don’t know who to reach out to, go on psych today and reach out to some you could see yourself connecting with and invite them on a walk or for coffee to start building your professional and personal support. 

Clients have a right to know some things about a therapist
Many of us were taught, maybe not necessarily as extreme as to be a “blank slate,” but to share minimally, keep the focus 100% on the client and that when a client asks us a personal question to respond with, “what would it mean for you to know that about me?” And you know… it’s just not how humans relate to one another. It’s taken me ten years to be more “human” with clients and I wish I would have sooner. Because I work in the spiritual trauma and/or parenting realms, (and everything is connected) I believe clients have the right to know some things about my spiritual, political, professional or parenting path, if it helps them increase their sense of safety in working with me. 

More group therapy, please! 
I hope more and more group therapy is created and utilized. I think we all need that type of support. Other humans saying, “me too, I get it.” Our previous surgeon general Vivek Murthy said something to the effect of, “we’re in a mental health crisis because of a spiritual and social crisis.” Yup, co-sign. We need real relationships and a connection to meaning, life, sacred. Group settings can offer this in a beautiful, special way that individual therapy can not. Individual therapy can offer a lovely relational experience that shifts our nervous system and creates safety, so that, for some of us, we then have the capacity to enter a group therapy environment and thrive. 

Talk to your therapist is something feels off, isn’t helping
If you’re not sure if your therapy is helping, and you feel safe enough, talk to your therapist about it. See how the dialogue goes, if they’re open to your feedback and provide a thoughtful response. Therapy is a RELATIONSHIP, granted, a different kind of relationship, but it is a relationship of two humans coming together and every relationship navigates rupture and repair. 

AI and therapy, therapist and clients, and notes, and such…
I don’t know. But it’s a thing. I don’t currently use AI in my practice, I have through other platforms and it does make things easier for me as a clinician, but I am not educated enough about the cost, so I have not implemented it in my practice.. So, alas, look to someone else for that expertise. AI has helped me in my personal life, so there’s that. 

You are your medicine 
I recently attended a wild feminine event and the practitioner used this phrase, “you are your medicine,”: and it’s what has stuck with me out of the many other moments and experiences of the two hour retreat. This is a thread of what I keep coming back to in the healing spaces, that our medicine, wisdom, healing is inside of us. I think Meggan Watterson’s soul voice meditation, Sarah Blondin’s teachings, Internal Family Systems, EMDR and somatics all teach this thread. I also recently came across Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing work and it’s the same message at its core. My biggest encouragement to everyone reading is to work with practitioners and healers that lead you back to yourself.