Insight: The Essential Ingredient in Therapy

There are many components to mental health counselling. For example, in therapy an individual might practice and establish healthier thought patterns, emotional regulation skills, behavioural changes, and lifestyle adjustments. All of these pieces are important to establishing health and desired change. However, often the most significant therapeutic tool is the development of insight or self-awareness.

When we talk about insight or self-awareness in therapy, we refer to an understanding of self. If a person is seeking counselling to address their anxiety, then insight will involve understanding where the anxiety comes from, what its triggers are, its history, and what’s driving it. In order to establish this understanding, we often spend time discussing one’s past, as well as the present.

In my years as a therapist, I’ve learned that healthy coping skills and behavioural changes are more sustainable when they are backed by insight and self-awareness. For example, when we understand the fears and needs behind our anxiety, then we can identify and practice skills that address those fears and needs, not just the symptoms of the anxiety, which provides a more profound and lasting impact.

Sometimes people come to therapy and want to get right to the change part of the process. They hope their therapist will offer a skill or a new lifestyle habit that will make things easier right away. Unfortunately, therapy is not that simple. Although there may be skills and lifestyle adjustments that facilitate a person’s desired change, that new habit or behaviour will likely not be impactful without insight. Often, when we dive right into skills and behavioural changes without establishing insight, we find ourselves regressing back to old patterns and habits quickly.

For this reason, I always caution clients that in therapy changes might come slowly and there may be periods of discomfort or “stuckness.” After all, our emotions and thoughts are complex and it takes time to develop understanding. The pay-off to this time and effort is the development of an authentic and sustainable change that meets our needs on deeper levels.

To learn more about insight, check out this article here.

About the Author: Emily Ehrhart is a therapist in Victoria, BC. She offers mental health counselling services to teens and adults, with a specialization in Climate / Eco Anxiety.