Paloma Rodriguez: It has not yet been normalized to ask for psychological help

Interview with psychologist Paloma Rodriguez Calvo, on the stigmatization of psychotherapy.

Do you know anyone who is embarrassed to say that he or she attends psychotherapy? Probably, even if you don't know anyone like that, the idea of someone having this attitude towards this kind of services will not seem strange to you.

However, it would seem strange to meet someone who does not want to admit that he or she has ever had surgery, or that he or she goes to the gym, for example. Why is this? At the end of the day, all these activities have to do with strengthening one's own well-being and state of health in the broadest sense.

In this interview with psychologist Paloma Rodriguez we will talk precisely about this topic: what is it and why does the stigma of going to psychological therapy arise?

Interview with Paloma Rodriguez Calvo: the stigma of going to therapy

General Health Psychologist Paloma Rodriguez Calvo is a psychologist and Director of the Reinventing Growth Center, located in Bilbao. In this interview she talks to us about the historical stigmatization of going to psychotherapy and the way in which this has been weakened, based on her professional experience over the years.

Where do you think the stigma attached to going to a psychologist has historically come from?

I think that the stigma of going to the psychologist arises, without any doubt, as a result of the distorted image that has been presented throughout the last decades of mental health added to the persistent lack of information and importance in this field over time.

According to this traditional image, a person in need of psychological help is someone who has become "crazy" or "sick", losing their mind and needing to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital, or an individual with sufficiently tragic and dramatic problems that they are moved to seek therapy as a last resort because there is no other option to help them calm their discomfort.

This image has come to us through movies and fictional stories that have been nourished by moments in the history of psychology in which this science had just taken off in the scientific field, such as the first psychoanalytic theories or the more esoteric parts of psychology that have little or nothing to do with the reality of psychotherapy today.

From what you have seen, is that stigma still very present in our society today?

The stigma is still present, although we must recognize that little by little it is being broken, but it is still rooted in today's society. We still hear comments among both young people and adults such as: "You're crazy", "You're a psychologist / psychiatrist", "You're sick in the head" .... Apparently harmless comments that we make unconsciously and seem to have no relevance but that continue to perpetuate the stigma of asking for psychological help because it is understood that this is for people who are "crazy".

Today it is still not normalized to ask for psychological help, probably because of the lack of visibility and importance that has been given to this area over time and because of the present general lack of emotional education.

Fortunately, the stigma is beginning to be broken. More and more people are speaking freely about psychological and emotional health as an important and fundamental part of our health; if we consider this in an integral way (according to the World Health Organization, integral health is the state of physical, emotional and social well-being of an individual). However, there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of normalization and access for the population to receive this type of help.

What are the implications for the mental health of the population if some people are embarrassed about going to therapy?

If people are ashamed to ask for help, they are not going to ask for it, it is very simple. What happens? That the need for psychological help present in the population is denied, so it cannot be solved because shame means not asking for it. If the demand is not met, there will be no investment in providing the necessary resources that this population needs for their mental health.

Shame at the possibility of going to therapy is not only the responsibility of those who feel it, but also of the entire population that perpetuates the idea that we must always be well and that, if we are psychically or emotionally unwell, we should be able to solve it on our own.

The use of invalidating comments about asking for help only leads us to a population that pretends to be always happy and content but suffers in silence and does not have the resources to take care of their psychoemotional health, when it would be convenient to seek professional support that would benefit them in this sense.

Do you think that if the population were more informed about what psychotherapy is, this would be a type of service totally normalized in all layers of society? Or does the amount of information have no influence on this, and is it a rather irrational phenomenon?

I have no doubt that if there were more information about psychotherapy it would be much more normalized, but I believe that information alone is not enough. It is also necessary to give visibility and accessibility to this resource.

That is to say, to give information to the population and to show the normality of the people who come to therapy and, in addition, to provide greater ease of access to the population. All this: information, visibility and accessibility would help to integrate a new paradigm in which psychology takes on the importance it deserves and breaks with the old irrational beliefs that paralyze us when it comes to asking for help.

In other areas of health, such as in the medical field, people have no doubts about what to do when their foot or head hurts. However, when we deal with psychological or emotional issues, there are many doubts as to whether psychological therapy will be the solution and how psychological counseling really works.

From my perspective there is a lack of information not only about the science of psychology but also about what psychological therapy is and most importantly, what are the reasons that can lead us to go to therapy or why we can consider asking for psychological help, because as I mentioned earlier there is a tendency to believe that psychotherapy is only for those already "unhinged" or completely lost.

Therefore, informing from there should be the priority of those who advocate for a comprehensive health that does not neglect the psycho-emotional part of the human being, so important for their welfare.

Due to the great lack of information, psychological therapy is still stigmatized and seems somewhat mysterious. However, it is not only the lack of information that prevents people from asking for this type of support. We must not forget the irrational part of the human being that finds it difficult to ask for help because it is based on the idea that "alone we can handle everything"; however, the data on the high incidence of psychological disorders in the current population such as depression and anxiety show that we cannot handle everything and show us that, perhaps, psychotherapy can be a great ally.

Would you say that in the new generations of young people it is assumed with normality that everyone may eventually need professional psychological support?

From my point of view I think that the young population and the new generations are much more prepared and open to accept mental health as a fundamental part of their wellbeing, which helps to normalize it. But sadly, it is still not assumed with absolute normality to go to psychological therapy.

The younger generations are more familiar with psychology and its great benefits compared to the older population, but the lack of information about mental health also includes this segment of the population and there is still a great reluctance to seek psychological support from young people and even among those who are still perpetuating the idea that psychotherapy is only for when you are already very bad, very bad and there is nothing else that can help you.

It is true that the young adult population is the most aware of the fact that anyone can need this type of support at any given moment in their lives and sees it as something normal. However, when a young person asks for psychological help, there is a general tendency for them to be embarrassed to share it with their peers, which shows that there is still a lot of work to be done even in this segment of the population.

What can psychologists who specialize in treating patients do to help this process of normalization of psychotherapy to accelerate and permeate all areas of society?

The first thing we should do is to educate those around us about the normality of going to therapy, that is, to encourage our peers and friends to ask for help when we feel it could be beneficial for them. This may seem like a small thing, but nevertheless, little by little the idea expands helping more people to understand that being accompanied by a psychologist is really something very positive and beneficial for their health.

Secondly, from a more professional standpoint, we need to break with the surreal and mysterious image that has been created of psychotherapy. To do this, it is important to provide quality information about psychology in a simple and understandable way, breaking with complicated terms when talking to the general population so that therapy is no longer understood as something highly medicalized, designed exclusively for people with clearly diagnosable disorders and/or "sick". In other words, presenting therapy as an accessible resource for anyone who could benefit from psychoemotional support and wants to improve in this part of their lives.

As psychotherapists we need to adapt to the changes and the current demands of the population, continue our work to give more and more visibility to this field and claim our space as health professionals in the centers dedicated to ensure the health of citizens (hospitals, clinics etc...).