Millennials and Gen Z are more willing to seek out help when it comes to mental health struggles than any other generations. We’re more open to talking about mental health, and among us, you’re likely to find people sharing advice, techniques, and funny anecdotes from our therapy sessions. The days of whispered judgments about people seeking help for their mental health are fading.
Or are they?
A lot of people still picture therapy as a dance of going to the office, sitting in the comfy chair, and talking about your feelings for an hour or so. That’s a valid, traditional form of therapy, but it’s not the only type available. Alternative therapies are taking hold in the world of psychology, and people are asking, “Do they work?”
Alternative therapies have gotten attention similarly to the attention that alternative medicine has received since its rise in popularity. People either love it or laugh at it. But our minds are just as unique as our bodies.
Why can’t different things work for different people?
Therapy is a form of expression, and expression comes in many forms. There’s art therapy, music therapy, hypnotherapy, even primal therapy and wilderness therapy! CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and other types of traditional therapies work for many people, myself included, but that doesn’t mean there isn't room for other types. Many people even combine traditional and alternative therapies in the same way those with physical ailments combine pharmaceuticals and alternative medicine like acupuncture or reiki. There’s no rule saying you can only get help from one source.
Speaking of acupuncture and reiki, I have experienced the latter. The first time I had reiki done, the difference astounded me. My therapist is a Reiki Master and Teacher who practices outside the realm of traditional therapy. We still sit down and talk for most of our sessions, but when time allows, she spends some of the time doing reiki.
The first time I had reiki done, I wasn’t sure what it would be like. I had heard of reiki and wanted to try it, but reiki treatments on their own can be expensive. Plus, only some insurances cover them.
After laying down on the table, the first thing my therapist did was read my chakras, which are pools of energy throughout the body. She read them with a pendulum made of a pointed stone on a delicate chain. I closed my eyes as she held the pendulum over each of my chakras one at a time, starting at the top of my head. She would tell me when one was closed or open, and I watched as the pendulum swung from side to side or in a wide circle.
“You can close your eyes if you want to,” she said when she was about to begin the actual treatment. “You don’t have to, though, it’s up to you.”
I did, so I wouldn’t imagine whether the treatment was working or not. Soon, I felt warmth on my stomach, and then a light pressure.
“Are you touching my stomach?” I asked, my eyes still closed.
“No, but I’m working in that area,” my therapist said. “Open your eyes and see.”
I did, and she was right. I still felt the heat, just as if her hands were on me, but they weren’t. She held them nearly a foot above my body, but I felt the energy relaxing me, spreading beyond that one area, into my limbs. Although she focused mainly on my stomach, she also moved up and down my body, to my head, my hands, even my feet. After the treatment, which was a quarter of the length of a full reiki session, I felt totally different. The tense stomach ache and nausea I’d arrived with was gone. My therapist didn’t even touch me, but my anxiety had lessened and for the first time in a while I felt good as I made my way back to my university campus for an afternoon class.
These days, I don’t see my therapist as often, and when I do, we mostly talk, though talking can be a form of reiki on its own. I’ve had reiki from other people, and sometimes our energies really click—other times not so much. The reiki still works, but I’ve found that if I have a deeper connection with the person performing it, it works better. I go to a reiki circle at a local metaphysical shop now, too. The circle is a guided meditation where reiki healers of various levels go around the room and perform reiki on each person while we listen to a guided meditation. These events are often free or by donation, and they allow for a sense of community as much as personal healing.
I always notice that even if I am dreading leaving the house to go to these group reiki sessions, I always feel better afterwards. I’ve brought my girlfriend and others along, and everyone has said they’ve felt a change afterwards. One person said they had the best week at work in a long while, post-reiki.
I find that the more often I have reiki done, the better I feel. It’s not a one and done treatment, but if I do it consistently, even just once a month, I feel the benefits.
Some people might ask whether I’m imagining the treatment working. I’ve considered that, but even if I were, I don’t care. If gathering with others and meditating and relaxing on its own helps me heal, I’d still go. The point is that something is working, and as long as it does, I’ll keep doing it.
Does the same thing work for everyone? No. It’s just like medication for physical ailments—one might work for you, but your friend might be allergic to it.
Primal therapy might not work for you, but art therapy might allow you the type of abstract expression you need. The National Alliance on Mental Illness cites several different forms of complementary therapy, explaining how these forms of therapy can be used with or in place of traditional therapies.
Many types of alternative therapy like reiki, acupuncture, and hypnotherapy can be used for both mental and physical issues. They help you relax, which benefits the entire body and creates a chain reaction that works up to improving your mental health. They work a lot like traditional therapy sessions in that you still need to go to them regularly—whether that’s once a week, once a month, or more or less often than that, for them to work long term.
Alternative therapies offer a way for us to explore new ways to heal and cope with the challenges we are currently facing both on a personal level and worldwide. The question that remains is this: is it really a bad thing to find alternative ways to help ourselves when the old ways don’t cut it?
