From the author: They say happiness is fleeting and you can’t feel happy all the time. But I think it’s possible, happiness is our choice, we just need to learn to notice the joys and feel gratitude for every day we live. Why is psychotherapy needed? Psychotherapy gives a person awareness. And awareness, in turn, allows you to understand yourself and your feelings, and better understand the feelings and motives of other people. Allows you to consciously make decisions based on an analysis of reality, not fantasy. When I am aware of my actions, my feelings, desires, then I have a choice. The choice to continue to do things that are familiar to me, which lead me into the same situations over and over again (“stepping on the same rake”). Or, choose something else. In any case, this decision is made by the person himself, and even if he chooses to step on the same rake, it will be a conscious choice, and the person will stop blaming the people around him for everything, and will begin to understand that he himself is the creator of his own destiny. When we If we are fully aware of the events around us and our emotions regarding them, if we interpret them correctly, then the quality of our life changes. We stop getting sick often. We manage to build deep relationships with other people. We begin to love ourselves, understand and accept other people, enjoy every day and look to the future with hope. Our income increases, a job we don’t like changes to a job we love. And the difficulties that arise along the way no longer seem insurmountable to us. What does a psychotherapist do? A psychotherapist helps us find contact with ourselves. There are various ways and techniques for this: showing yourself from the outside (mirroring); sympathy and empathy where there was none before for some reason; awareness of current patterns of behavior and search for new patterns of behavior Client myths. Psychotherapists work only with sick people. This is not true, psychotherapists generally do not work with sick people. Psychiatrists work with them and treat them with medication. The psychotherapist can give advice. He can, but he won’t do this. Because the psychotherapist does not have the right to impose his opinion on your actions. And also, this advice will most likely be about his life and his experience, and it’s not at all a fact that a psychotherapist will solve any of your problems. No, it won’t. But he will help you understand what and how led you to this situation. It will help you understand the result you want to get. And based on this analysis, you yourself will find the solution you need. Psychotherapy is a quick and simple solution to all problems. No, at least not always. The process of psychotherapy is never too fast. Just imagine, you have lived your entire adult life with some thoughts, attitudes, patterns of behavior, and then you turned to a psychologist, and you want that in one hour of consultation he will change your entire worldview, everything that you have believed in all your life. This is impossible. During one consultation, the psychotherapist moves the client only the distance that the client himself is ready to move. Sometimes we need to build up our strength first in order to gain the courage to realize our problems. Our mentality is such that we want quick results and do not want to work. All this leads us to fortune tellers, psychics, alcohol, trainings, with loud headlines: “Change your life in one day,” as well as wasted money and time. Miser pays twice. Our mentality is such that we tend to seek help when we feel really bad, when we are already in despair. And we are not only talking about turning to psychologists, our doctors also complain about this. Is it worth taking everything to the extreme? I’ll leave this question open... They say happiness is fleeting and you can’t feel happy all the time. But I think it’s possible, happiness is our choice, we just need to learn to notice the joys and feel gratitude for every day we live. Mindfulness is happiness, even if you have to be aware of not the most pleasant things.