The Most Common Issues Gen Xers Bring Up In Therapy |
The Most Common Issues Gen Xers Bring Up In Therapy
Do any of these sound familiar?
Lifestyle Reporter, HuffPost
Millennials and Generation Z are often dubbed the “therapy generations,” known for prioritising mental health and seeking counselling when they need it.
Where does that leave Gen X? Is the demographic known for its independent streak and “whatever” attitude similarly blasé about getting a therapist?
Many Gen Xers – those born between about 1965 and 1980 – came of age in a time when seeking help wasn’t as normalised. For some, a “shadow of a stigma” still lingers, said Tracy Douglas, a therapist in Wisconsin who specialises in supporting Gen X clients.
Mental health wasn’t exactly a dinner table topic in the ’70s and ’80s, she said. Apart from a Woody Allen film – or the kind of urbane circles those movies depicted – it wasn’t really talked about at all.
“Therapy wasn’t seen as a proactive tool for healing and growth so much as it was an absolute last resort to turn to,” Douglas, who was born in 1970 herself, told HuffPost. “Because of that, many Gen Xers can still have a sense that they should be able to muscle through troubles on their own.”
For some Gen Xers, off-putting experiences with quirky ’70s- and ’80s-era therapists – or ones who felt overly performative – have made them hesitant to go back.
“I had one client tell me about a family session from his teens where a therapist forced the entire family to hold hands, look each other in the eye, and recite ‘I love you’ to each family member,” Douglas said. “It was so forced, awkward and profoundly disconnected from their actual family dynamic that they never went back.”
Still, more members of the latchkey generation are starting to try therapy. In 2018, about 26% of Gen Xers said they’d sought therapy at some point, according to the American Psychological Association – and that number has only climbed since the Covid-19 pandemic kicked off a full-blown therapy boom, fuelled in part by the rise of telehealth.
“Once they’re actually in the room, Gen Xers are often some of the most committed clients I work with,” said Jennifer Chappell Marsh, a marriage and family therapist in San Diego,........