Lately I have been reading various articles and social media posts about “the therapist friend” and it has made me reflect on my own life.
The therapist friend is the individual who is seen by their friends as wise, patient, and someone you often go to for advice about your life and relationships. The therapist friend is typically calm, a voice of reason, and emotionally intellectual. This friend is always there to listen, and they tend to give you great advice because they personally know you. In fact, they’ll often relate the advice to other aspects of your life or past experiences.
Being the therapist friend is an incredibly rewarding experience, especially since those who tend to be the therapist friend genuinely like to think about social relationships and enjoy giving advice. However, being the therapist friend can sometimes be exhausting. Especially when you don’t know how to give yourself the advice that you need for your own life. The therapist friend has their own problems too, and they are not as put together as they may seem to be.
This is a reminder to check in on your therapist friends. At the end of the day, we are all human, we all have problems and we all need a compassionate and attentive listener in our corner. It’s like that saying, it costs $0.00 to be kind to someone, and it also costs $0.00 to reach out to your friends to ask them how they are doing. Even if you’re feeling down, you’re probably not alone; check in with your friends because maybe they feel similar to you.
Life is hard enough, especially in the middle of a pandemic. Check in on your friends. Remind them that you are there to listen and most importantly, tell them that you miss them. We often get so caught up in our own lives that we forget about the people closest to us.