Level Up Your Mindset

Can you actually heal yourself? Psych experts say yes, it can be done. Here's how.

- By Jessica Migala

The term self-healing gets thrown around a lot. There's no shortage of posts on social media that encourage taking actions to proactively improve your mental health, but the real concept often gets misconstrued, with people thinking of it mainly as a way to fix what ails them on their own. In fact, it's an actual technique that psych experts suggest for patients in therapy, and it refers to work that individuals can do in their everyday lives between sessions to develop healthier coping mechanisms, become better at processing hardships, and facilitate growth.

When practiced on your own (whether you're in therapy or not), self-healing refers to the day-to-day behaviors that improve wellbeing, says psychologist Alfiee M. Breland-Noble, Ph.D., founder of The AAKOMA Project. Think mantras and meditation. The exact shape it takes varies. Self-healing can also be used as preventive care to cope with stress, promote self-regulation, and head off mild depression and anxiety from becoming severe, says Omotola T'Sarumi, MD, a psychiatrist in charge in McLean Hospital's Division of Depression and Anxiety Disorders.

Let's face it: We need self-healing now more than ever. When left undealt with, chronic stress or anxiety can lead to leaning on maladaptive behaviors for comfort, such as repeatedly procrastinating on important tasks to ease the pressure of deadlines. That will create problems in the long run. And this is where self-healing shines. Over time, you'll learn to handle life's ups and downs in healthier ways. We all have room to grow, says Breland-Noble. Self-healing is a process, not a destination.