Why Doing "Homework" in Therapy Can Change Your Life
Therapy can be a powerful tool for improving mental health. With technological advances, we are not able to do therapy at home. This helps people who might not have the accessibility to going to therapy in person. If you’ve ever been in a therapy session, you probably know that it can be difficult to incorporate insights once you’re out of the actual session. This is completely normal. Life gets busy, and it can be challenging to retain the insights if we don’t practice or integrate them into our daily lives.
What is Therapy Homework?
Therapy Homework is any exercise that helps people engage in healing work beyond the therapy session itself. Examples of therapy homework include journaling and reflection exercises that can help patients go deeper into topics discussed in therapy. Therapy isn’t meant to be similar to homework that we had in school, but rather activities that integrate insights made in therapy. This will help transform these insights into actionable steps that can make a significant difference in a person’s life.
Benefits of Therapy Homework
Therapy homework is a great way to get more out of therapy sessions. Doing homework in between sessions helps to practice the things you are learning. Repetition helps our brains to form new pathways to rewire how we think. Every time we repeat a thought or coping skill we learned in therapy, we are reinforcing the new pathways. This will make thought patterns and habits easier to do because our brains are creating new pathways for them. This is referred to as neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity helps to create lasting changes to expand on therapy benefits.
Ways to Do Therapy Homework
There is no right or wrong way to practice therapy homework. However, if you are new to the practice, it might be helpful to have some ideas of where to start
- One way to practice therapy homework is to journal about reflections or insights gained in therapy. It may be helpful to journal by writing thoughts down on paper. On the other hand, it might be more helpful for some people to respond to journal prompts. Journal prompts can help focus the exercises on the specific struggles the person is dealing with.
- Another way to do therapy homework is to keep thought logs. Thought logs can be used to track our thoughts, behaviors, and moods over time.
- We can also practice skills learned in therapy through reading and workbooks. Both of these can be chosen with your therapist or teletherapist to make sure they are the most helpful. There are many self-help books related to specific topics.
Therapy homework can help people get the most out of their therapy sessions. Practicing skills or insights learned in therapy helps strengthen new pathways in our brains. These pathways can help us develop new mindsets and behaviors.
If you (or someone you love) may benefit from working with one of our online counselors, we are here to help! Reach out to us today if you are ready to start your healing journey.
References
https://www.verywellmind.com/therapy-homework-purpose-and-benefits-tips-6754934
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/neuroplasticity
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2939342/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jclp.23627
Keywords: therapy at home, teletherapist, therapy benefits, online counselor [Michigan]