‘New year, new you’ is a promise we often make to ourselves when the bells chime the start of a brand new year. The thought of an empty calendar of 12 months stretching ahead of us – and not wanting the ‘same old, same old’ all over again this year – can sometimes galvanise us into taking action to feel better about ourselves and the lives we lead.

Alongside gym memberships and the resolution to eat way more healthily, could it also be a good moment to explore your inner world, too? At The Awareness Centre we notice our phones getting incredibly busy at the start of a new year as people begin to prioritise their personal development – for a whole bunch of reasons.

If you’re curious as to why people turn to psychotherapy, counselling and psychology – and if you’re thinking about it for you – then read on to find out the core reasons why people start therapy in the new year.

You’re struggling to relate

Relationships issues can often reach a peak around the holiday times, especially Christmas when there is so much pressure for everything to be perfect. Simmering tensions between partners, family members and friends can sometimes boil over in the heat of the moment. In your romantic relationships, you may have started to spot patterns that are sometimes unhealthy and sometimes toxic, and you’ve reached the stage where enough is enough. Therapy can help you work through those patterns, which often come from the past, to recognise your triggers, tone down your reactions, and adapt the way you communicate.

You feel terribly low

You feel lonely and isolated, with low mood that you can’t seem to shift. Being around people doesn’t help much: it can often feel lonelier in a crowd. You can’t quite pinpoint why you feel so low all the time. You are concerned that you are losing interest in things in life, you can’t remember the last time you felt joy and you are increasingly withdrawing from socialising. Therapy can support you through your darker days and help you identify ways to find your light again.

You can’t stop worrying

You chew your nails, grind your teeth, fret and worry and find it hard to relax. This worrying can feel quite generalised rather than specific – a nagging feeling of dread that something terrible is going to happen. If you find yourself worrying most of the time then you may be tipping into anxiety. Therapy can help you identify what lies beneath those worries, as well as identifying and implementing strategies to help manage those anxious moments.

You need to find a new purpose

You may have reached a ‘now what?’ stage of life. Nothing is wrong at such, but there’s something niggling at the back of your mind: you wonder if there’s something more you could be doing with your life. You may have a good job, a loving relationship, a home with all the trimmings, and a life that looks wonderful from the outside. But from the inside it just doesn’t feel enough. You fear you’ve missed opportunities and life has passed you by. Therapy can offer weekly supportive sessions as you explore your path to finding more meaning and purpose in your life – at home, at work, and in your relationship – to help put a spring back in your step for the years ahead.

To book an appointment with one of our therapists for the new year, call 020 8673 4545 or email [email protected] We have centres in Clapham and Tooting and no waiting list.