First, I’d like to state what I hope is obvious–I’m not a therapist. I’m a swing dance instructor and a writer (who currently sees a therapist).

Years ago, I started uploading dance instruction videos to YouTube for the sole purpose of cataloging my knowledge base and giving my students a means to review class material. As a bonus, millions of other people have seen the videos, and sometimes they reach out and say nice things about them, and sometimes they don’t.

In the same manner, my primary motivation in starting Me and My Therapist is to give myself a reason to write on a more consistent basis. Also, it helps me make sense of my life. As a bonus, other people are already reading it, and some of them are saying nice things. Thank you.

Whereas it delights me to think that others may benefit from this project, I’d like to be clear in stating that for at least ten years before I saw my therapist, I was reading a lot of self-help and spiritual books and probably even some blogs about mental health. And although those things were useful and still continue to be, the majority of the strides that I’ve made have been within the context of a professional therapeutic relationship. Indeed, I was in a number of unhealthy (and even emotionally abusive) relationships that all the books and even the best of my friends were unable to help with.

It is for this reason that I’d tell you about mental health the same thing I’d tell anyone about dance–books and blogs are okay, but nothing takes the place of one-on-one work with a professional.

Officially, I’m saying this–

The opinions expressed on this website are solely my own unless otherwise stated. Nothing on this site should be used to replace the advice of a trained mental or medical health professional.

Personally, I’m saying this–

We all deal with some rough shit, some of us a lot worse than others. But I truly believe help is available and healing is possible. So if you need to get help, get it. If a book or a blog fixes your problem, good. But if you get to the last page and your life isn’t better, try something else. If your car broke and you couldn’t fix it yourself, you’d go to a mechanic (a professional), and not just someone that had a blog or a television show. And if you hated that mechanic, you’d go to another one. And so on until you found one you liked and trusted and your car worked. It’s my personal recommendation that you apply this same logic to anything in your life that’s not working for you, especially when it comes to your mental and emotional wellbeing.

In my experience, therapy hasn’t always been easy, but it’s always been worth it.

All the very best,

Marcus