Goal-Setting for Better Mental Health

“I’m in therapy for depression” is something you may feel you can only say to those closest to you. But what if we took a different approach? Instead of saying “I’m having counselling for my anxiety and panic attacks”, what if we said “I’m working on staying calm when I feel stressed”?

According to counselling expert and business development director for XenZone, Aaron Sefi, defining your goals is a positive way to start tackling bigger mental health issues — as well as an easier way to explain them. “Therapists work with people to set goals which define what they want to achieve from treatment. They help break down often huge issues into bite-sized chunks which are easier to tackle. They’re also easier to explain to others. You might say ‘I’m working towards getting through my work appraisal feeling happy’ for example, rather than ‘I’m in therapy for my anxiety’.”

Using goals to explain our mental state isn’t glossing over the truth, it is about seeing things differently. Goal-setting offers a positive way to frame your therapy and is proven to work. By breaking down vast and paralysing feelings we can start to address their constituent parts.

Aaron Sefi: “Goals are a good way to get rid of any ambiguity or fuzziness. They represent pieces of work which therapy then supports. To the client and the people they want to tell, it presents an active and future-focused perspective that’s easier to deal with.”

While not everyone chooses to see a therapist, it is clearly still possible to set personal goals, perhaps online or via an app. Some apps will offer goal setting tools, along with journaling and mood trackers, which help define and track progress. This can be done either individually by those who are following a self-help path — or with guidance and support from counsellors. They key here is that the person seeking help is in control, but has the support they need.

This support could be a simple framework for therapeutic goals. Let’s say your overarching aim is to feel happier, you would then work to boil this down into lower order goals that you (or your therapist) know has worked before, for example, taking more regular exercise, or spending more time with friends. One might be to feel more fulfilled in life. Shorter-term goals or tasks would be aimed at achieving this.

Considering the method, or your approach to goals is another important aspect in achieving them. You might choose journaling to start recognising and focusing on positive aspects of your life. Alternatively, you might use time management hacks to carve out time to do those things which bring about a greater feeling of fulfilment. You might, for example, put half an hour aside every day to draw.

Aaron Sefi: “Once you have a set of goals, counsellors will encourage you to track progress, while offering support. It is important goals are measured. This is where apps are incredibly powerful in offering an immediate way to record your feelings.

The fact that apps will come to hold such rich data means the individual can review progress easily and will start to feel empowered in their recovery. So whether they are using mood trackers or working to a specific set of goals, they are able to monitor and gauge their development quickly and accurately.”

Finally, a recognition of how goals differ according to how and when they apply to each individual is important. Some goals will be immediate: I need to see the GP for more support. Some will relate to life goals: I would like to have a better relationship with my partner. And some will be about the therapy itself, if you are being supported by a counsellor: I want to talk about this particular issue next week. Some seem deceptively simple, but they come to reflect a greater self-knowledge, which takes time.

However you choose to work, it is the setting of goals which is likely to bring success. Defining these in a language which positively supports your aims is important to your recovery. It’s also a welcome bridge to the outside world where, for now at least, stigma still reigns.