A Clinical Psychologist Can Help You Understand Yourself

It can be difficult for a person to truly know themself. Human beings are complex. There are often conflicting emotions running through your mind at any given time. This is made worse when we are put in stressful or uncomfortable situations, but a form of it is always present.

Even those who make it a goal to better understand themselves always have something more to strive toward. But even you don’t need to strive for enlightenment to benefit from understanding yourself.

Your emotions often factor into your decisions. And your decisions will have a great impact on where you end up in life. The ability to better understand that which is at the root of your emotions will allow you more control over your decisions, and thus, your position in life.

Clinical psychology in Nashville, TN can help a person to work toward this goal. But how does clinical psychology help a person to better understand themself? How does it help in day-to-day life?

Clinical Psychology: Defined

Put simply, clinical psychology is a branch of psychology that aims to assess and treat mental illness, disability, and distress.

There are multiple approaches to psychology — individual therapy, couples therapy, and group therapy. The types of problems, conditions, and disorders that are treated in each type of therapy will be different.

However, the basic method of addressing the concerns will be the same. Clinical psychology often involves working through the patients’ issues through open discussion of emotions and ideas. This can often be performed in conjunction with medication, but this isn’t always necessary.

Clinical psychology is mainly distinguished from general psychology in that it deals with more serious issues such as addiction and mental illness.

Here are the ways clinical psychology in Nashville, TN helps you to better understand yourself.

Recognizing Problems Is the First Step to Addressing Them

A person isn’t able to work through a problem if they don’t have a clear view of it. Clinical psychology helps to not only bring issues to the forefront of the patient’s consciousness, it can also diagnose a treatable disorder should one exist.

Mental illness can be the result of genetics, biological factors, traumatic brain injuries, life experiences, and more.

These issues can be treated with medication along with sessions with a trained psychologist. Full recovery might not always occur, but mitigation of symptoms is possible.

Visit Dr. Phil Chanin to learn more about clinical psychology in Nashville, TN.

Stop Running From Your Past

Life experiences can pile on top of each other until they seem too heavy to address. This leads to people either refusing to address problems or running away from them. Both of these scenarios lead to negative outcomes.

Addiction is the most visible result of this practice, but general mental anguish can occur in less conspicuous ways.

Discussions with a trained psychologist can help a person to address these issues and begin to resolve the mental issues that stem from them.

Less Stress Means More Freedom

Living with the burden of a mental disorder, mental illness, or excessive stress can make a person withdraw into themselves. Refusing to participate in recreational activities or losing interest in them altogether traps a person within their head.

This can create a cycle in which the problems compound upon themselves and grow worse.

Talking through these points of stress with a psychologist often helps patients to develop coping mechanisms to where they can rejoin the world.

Build Healthy Habits

The ways in which we self-medicate to deal with mental health issues can worsen the issues. A clinical psychologist will work with a patient to develop healthy and productive ways to address their issues.

Addictive personalities seek gratification through negative stimuli. However, there are other ways to satisfy these urges.

Healthy habits help our minds through healing our physical bodies. Eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercise will provide mental rewards. And while your psychologist won’t be running around the track with you, they can help lay the framework for a healthier lifestyle.

Reconnect With Your Goals

It’s difficult to think about our futures when we’re focused on trying to feel okay in every particular moment. This narrows our focus until we forget about our long-term goals, which can leave a person feeling hopeless.

Addressing your mental health concerns with a clinical psychologist can help a person work through the fog of the moment to again look to the future.

Couples Therapy Benefits Everyone

Our relationships with others — particularly our significant others — have a large effect on our daily lives as well as our mental health. And when these relationships hit a rough patch, our mental health can follow suit.

Couples therapy helps people to vocalize, address, and work through their problems in a healthy and productive manner. Navigating these issues with the help of a professional provides the support each party needs to feel properly heard and understood.

Do you think you can benefit from the help of a clinical psychologist in Nashville, TN?

Contact Dr. Phil Chanin today.