Myths About Therapy Debunked
Katherine [Katu] Medina-Pineda, MHC-LP
While the field of psychology and mental health therapy has been around for thousands of years, the topic of therapy remains a social mystery shrouded with speculation, assumption, misunderstanding, confusion, and fear. Views on therapy and mental health as a whole vary widely based on cultural background, socioeconomic positionality, and lived/shared experience individually as well as within one’s immediate community (such as family, neighborhood, and school). Let’s get into some of the myths about therapy and get into the nuanced truths about it.
Myth:Therapy is the same as talking to a friend
Nuance: There can be overlapping aspects between talking to a friend and talking to a therapist- namely, that it is comforting and validating to be witnessed by another person. However, a therapist is trained to be inquisitive and notice patterns. Therapists are also trained to consistently reflect on their own biases and their own hopes/goals/agenda for clients. Talking to a therapist offers valuable insight of one’s own experience, whereas venting or seeking advice from a friend centers the relationship and not just one person’s perspective. Friends will offer their own thoughts and opinions where therapists will help you learn more about your own perspective and how to communicate with others in a constructive and compassionate way.
Myth: Therapy is not confidential
Nuance: A lot of people fear or reject therapy, in part, because of the previous myth that a therapist and a friend are practically interchangeable. Your friend very well may share conversations had privately with other people, however, therapists are trained to maintain confidentiality with certain limitations that have to do with safety. Therapists are keepers of everything that happens in their sessions, only sharing as little information as possible with supervisors or colleagues in order to make sure they are providing the best and most effective care possible to their respective clients. Therapists are trained to never use names, birthdays, addresses, or other identifying information when seeking consultation from fellow professionals; and we all have an ethical obligation to protect client information. A therapist will never share the content of their sessions with the people in their lives. If you know a therapist and ask them about their work, the most they will give you is how they are feeling after working and will likely keep it deliberately vague. This is because therapeutic work is not possible when the client does to feel safe and comfortable being vulnerable and confidentiality eases some of those fears.
Myth: Therapy is for people who are severely mentally ill/only “crazy” people go to therapy
Nuance: According to Mental Health America, 1 in 5 adults meet criteria for a diagnosable mental health condition, which roughly means around 23% of the adult population can be considered “mentally ill”. However, according to a 2020 study published in Jama Network Open, the number of people who actually meet the criteria for a diagnosable condition from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Health Disorders (DSM-V) is much higher at 86%, based on the sample study. From a decolonizing therapy perspective, the purpose of diagnosis is to pathologize (to treat something as unhealthy) appropriate responses to systemic oppression in order to ensure society continues to prioritize productivity, which is essential for the upholding of capitalism and the benefit of those in positions of power. This myth actually helps the perpetuation of individual inferiority when we notice ourselves “losing productivity” as a result of stress, anxiety, depression, or addiction. Therapy is a tool of self-awareness, compassion, and re-humanization– all the qualities which White Supremacy rejects in order to sustain itself. The truth is that every single person, regardless of how good/well/content they might be with life, will benefit enormously from therapy.
Myth: Therapy will fix all my problems/I won’t experience distress once I’m done
Nuance: This is something a lot of people struggle with that keeps them from starting therapy or continuing treatment after they have started. This belief can be better understood from a white supremacy perspective as it creates a binary understanding of the human experience- that you are healthy and thus you have no problems or experience suffering anymore OR you are unhealthy and thus remain “stuck” in a cycle of perpetual suffering- which is ultimately limited and dismissive of our natural complexities. Therapy is a space to become more self-aware, to understand and navigate accountability and personal/collective responsibility with compassion and nuance, and to develop the appropriate coping tools to manage one’s own natural complexities. That means unpleasant emotions, stressors, things outside of one’s control, unfairness, and suffering will continue to show up in one’s daily life. Therapy teaches us acceptance of this fact and flexibility to navigate each moment with care.
Myth: All therapists are the same
Nuance: There are requirements for all graduate and training programs across the board that create a level of congruence and perceived sameness among therapists, however, the most consistent determinant of therapeutic success regardless of modality or theoretical orientation is the therapeutic relationship. That is because therapists are human beings first- therapy is a job like any other job. Just as people do not always like each other for explicit or unexplained reasons, not every client is going to mesh well with every therapist. As a result, it is important that, when seeking therapy, people take a moment to reflect on what they hope to gain and what is important to them. If your way of viewing the world is social justice- or feminist-centered, you will not vibe well with a therapist who claims an apolitical stance in their work. It is not a deficit on either party, it just means you are incompatible. If dreams play a large role in the way you make sense of the world, you may benefit from a therapist who not only adopts a more psychodynamic framework, but one who also enjoys dream interpretation. In Spanish there is the expression that translates to: “for all the tastes, there are colors” [para gustos, hay colores], which I believe is highly applicable to finding a therapist. If you and your therapist do not connect well, that is ok! You deserve to find the person that you feel safe enough to be vulnerable.
Conclusion:
There are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about what therapy is and is not, how it can be helpful, who needs it or who can access it; and those all serve to keep people from becoming more self-aware and receiving the support and resources they need in order to survive and thrive. The biomedical model (understanding illness as only based on biology, genetics, or bodily function/dysfunction) severely limits how people relate to all aspects of their health, particularly regarding mental health because it emphasizes that only certain people require treatment and that means something about them is fundamentally wrong/sick. Therapy can be so much more than addressing illness, it can be a tool for re-humanization and re-imagination of what life could be beyond white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy.
Sources:
Mental Health America. (2025, March 5). Quick facts | Mental Health America. https://mhanational.org/quick-facts/
Mozafaripour, S. (2025, May 16). Mental Health Statistics [2024]. University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. https://www.usa.edu/blog/mental-health-statistics/
Simons, P. (2020, May 7). Almost everyone meets criteria for mental illness, study suggests. Mad in America. https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/05/almost-everyone-meets-criteria-mental-illness/
Therapists Spill: How Therapy is Different from Talking to a Friend. (2016, May 17). Psych Central. https://psychcentral.com/lib/therapists-spill-how-therapy-is-different-from-talking-to-a-friend#1