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Prioritize your mental health this spring during National Counseling, Mental Health Awareness Months
This story first appeared in the April 2024 edition of Healthy You, a quarterly health publication and Gazette special section.
Spring is a season of revitalization and growth — and it’s also a time dedicated to promoting and raising awareness about mental health and wellness.
April is National Counseling Awareness Month, followed by Mental Health Awareness Month in May. Both shine a light on the critical role mental health professionals play in providing care for those who are struggling with their mental health.
According to the American Counseling Association, 1 in 5 people will experience mental illness in their lifetime. But, they don’t have to go through it alone.
“What therapy does is a little bit of what an author does. It is understanding how someone approaches the world, what their thinking is, how they approach certain situations — and then it helps them to do things differently,” says Dr. Jason Drwal, owner and clinical psychologist at Evergreen Therapy Center. Evergreen Therapy Center has offices in both Cedar Rapids and North Liberty and employs a total of 10 part-time and full-time therapists.
Drwal was first inspired to become a psychologist in high school with the help of one of his teachers, who showed motivational videos on how to have higher self-esteem and accomplish goals. Drwal’s older brother was also a therapist and often talked about how he helped people.
“I thought it was really cool, and I just put the two pieces together,” he said. “I started to think about people and how they saw the world, and initially, I was going into research but found I enjoyed sitting down and talking with people more. [Therapists] see more immediate results [than researchers].”
Drwal went on to earn his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Connecticut, where he learned firsthand how to help people with their mental health.
“People come to therapy stuck in some kind of negative pattern. What therapy can do is first, begin to help a married couple, family or individual think differently about themselves and the world. Second, help the client change their behavior. And finally, help them make different choices than they’ve made in the past,” he said. “In other words, counseling can help retrain behaviors that aren’t working for an individual, couple or family.”
There are numerous different kinds of mental health professionals, each one with a different approach to the treatment of their clients. Most have a primary approach but also use other methods, too. Examples are:
- Marriage and family counselors who address behaviors of married couples, an individual within a marriage, or the behaviors of an individual within a family.
- Addiction therapists who specialize in assisting clients with substance abuse issues.
- Behavioral therapists who work with clients experiencing mental health disorders such as bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety.
- Child therapists who work with children under the age of 17 who battle emotional, behavioral, or mental disorders and more.
“People try to change their negative behaviors but can’t always do it on their own,” Drwal said. “Counseling helps people come to new and more accurate perspectives. They try new things that they might not have thought they could do.”
Mental health professionals also have a variety of treatment options. Typically, they primarily use one or two. The most commons methods are:
- Psychodynamic therapy, which discovers problematic thoughts, feelings or behaviors and their meanings and motivations, then focuses on changing them.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy, which looks at both normal and abnormal behaviors and then focuses on how those behaviors were learned.
- Humanistic therapy, which uses an individual’s innate desire for self-actualization and creativity, and emphasizes that for change.
- Eclectic or holistic therapy, which creates individualized treatment plans using combined approaches from different therapeutic methods.
Clients should be aware there are differences between a psychologist, therapist, counselor and a psychiatrist. The two biggest differences are psychiatrists are medical doctors, and they can prescribe medications. Psychologists are not and cannot. Psychiatrists diagnose mental illnesses and manage treatment for the same. Some individuals will need both services, and some will not, depending on the issues that need to be addressed. Counselors can be a resource to sort that out.
Therapy is always a partnership between the therapist and the clients, where both participants work toward a common goal.
“Therapy helps them learn the first smaller steps to take instead of the most difficult one. The goal of therapy: not to help you take the final step but help you take the next step, as you may not be ready to take the ultimate one. What is an incremental step that will move me forward? This is where therapy is most helpful,” Drwal said.
Resources for finding a mental health professional are more abundant than ever before. Seeing a mental health professional in person is one option, but since COVID-19, telehealth is another popular method. Check with your insurance provider to see what mental health services are covered under your health plan.
Local mental health resources:
NAMI Linn County, Linn County Public Health, NAMI Johnson County, Johnson County Public Health, Four Oaks, Abbe Mental Health Center, Covenant Family Solutions, Cedar Center, Foundation 2 Crisis Services, MercyOne Behavioral Services, Tanager Place, Associates for Behavioral Healthcare, and multiple private practices like Evergreen Therapy Center.
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