Einstein's Endorsement of Therapy

Albert Einstein said insanity is trying the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome, or some such thing like that. Similarly, we often use the same ineffective strategies for dealing with problems because we simply don't know what else to try. We get caught in thinking that because something has always been this way, that it will always remain the same.

Getting stuck in our thinking happens to everyone from time to time. Getting unstuck often requires getting a different perspective on the problem. When we're too close to a problem, we need the perspective of someone outside the problem to help us see a new strategy for dealing with it.

A common misconception is that therapy is only for "crazy" people. Therapy, however, is essentially the offering of new ways of looking at familiar problems. We all run into difficulties that we can't see our way out of. When we can't envision a solution, this doesn't make us insane; it makes us human. Helping us see new ways of looking at familiar problems and taking action to solve them is the basis of good therapy.

Being stuck and not doing anything about it--that's crazy. Enlisting another's ideas for solving the problem, to drastically paraphrase Einstein, just makes good, "sane" sense.