Why Some People Feel Worse After Therapy Sessions

Therapy isn’t always an instant relief, sometimes, sessions leave people emotionally drained. Processing buried emotions and confronting difficult truths can temporarily heighten distress before improvement happens. This is a normal part of healing. How do you take care of yourself after an intense therapy session?

Most therapy sessions always force the patient to start talking about deep hurts that they are going through. Some, they have managed to suppress. Getting to bring up those emotions again to the fore can easily create emotional trauma all over again.

Sometimes, therapy can bring up difficult emotions and memories, making me feel worse initially. It's like opening a wound to heal it. This discomfort is often a sign of progress, as I'm confronting what needs to be addressed for long-term healing.

It’s completely normal to feel worse before feeling better during therapy. Confronting deep emotions or past experiences can stir up pain, but as you said, it's often a sign of progress. It's like cleaning a wound to prevent infection; it may sting in the moment, but ultimately, it allows for healing. It can be helpful to remember that therapy is a process, and those tough moments often lead to greater self-awareness.