What is therapy?

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Therapy, while broad and diverse, has many different branches and specialties which include, but are not limited to: psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive behavioral, and humanistic therapy. While each one has a certain approach to helping you understand different parts of yourself, they are typically conducted in sessions of around an hour's time and typically led by mental health professionals.

Professional therapists are often licensed and have spent years studying in this field of work in the traditional sense (college, graduate school, etc.) These professionals help people like yourself uncover and explore unconscious feelings or thoughts and help you develop healthier, more effective habits in order to work through your problems on a day-by-day basis or something that can be as deep as addiction, trauma, or anything related to that sense.

Now you might be wondering now...

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What is peer support?

Peer support includes individuals (typically not licensed mental health professionals) but offer encouragement and assistance in helping you achieve recovery by sharing their own personal lived experiences whether it’s from alcoholism, a mental illness or a loss. Peer support can be conducted in one-on-one sessions or in groups. I personally believe that peer support can be tapped from anywhere, but oftentimes we tap into our friends and family for support through difficult times. Depending on where you are in your recovery, that may not be enough. Sometimes we need to find people that can empathize with our journey and that have overcome similar challenges.

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My personal journey

In 2019, my father assaulted me, my family then ostracized me and I was homeless and felt like no one truly understood my situation. How difficult it was to start over - to feel as if no one could truly understand the horrors that I was going through. When I took my first few steps to heal, I had difficulties finding someone to that I could relate. I had to meet multiple therapists before finding the right person, but in between that time, I found myself with hardly any friends that could truly understand the pain, the betrayal, and the loneliness that I was going through.

I came to the conclusion that my healing would be not only with myself, but with my therapist, but there were times when I didn't need a professional, but just someone who experienced something similar. I recount calling the suicide prevention hotline multiple times to help me get through the darkest moments in my recovery, but there was a way to prevent hitting that "bottom" as I call it. I needed a place that enforced positivity and instill hope. I needed that support system that understood and empathized with exactly what I was going through.

I wanted to reach out to my family, the people that I trusted for years to guide me in the right direction, but no one wanted anything to do with me after the assault. My recovery from leaving my domestic violence situation was a long and lonely journey for me, but I didn't want it to be that way for everyone else.

That's why I created Your Friend Community. Your Friend Community is a safe haven facilitating real friendships. Friends in our community help individuals produce better outcomes and improve the overall quality of life through personal coaching and personal development tools.

Understanding the difference between therapy and peer support will allow you to make an informed decision on how you want to overcome or transform life's hardest challenges as you embark on your journey to real healing. The only thing I wish I had done differently was having this type of community for myself as I struggled years ago.

Don't hesitate to reach out for more tips, and tricks and connect with a peer counselor to help support you through your transformation.

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Your Friend Community - The Peer Support Network

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