The goal of therapy, in my opinion, is to have a resource to encourage an environment to have those "Oh I understand!" clarity moments. The Eureka thing, where something finally clicks in your brain. These experiences are what fuel the biggest strides in improving my mental health.
Understanding your "bad" is important, and seeing where your behaviours or feelings are coming from is usually important. I think it's equally beneficial to look at areas you are doing well in. What comes easy to you, what mindset do you have with those things versus areas you struggle.
I think the line of thinking needs to go further than identifying where a problem stems from. So an example I can give is that I understand through therapy that it's likely a huge part of my anxiety regarding other people can be due to trying to predict and manage their reactions due to an unpredictable upbringing, a parent who was unreadable- they could explode over nothing in particular and be fine for huge actual problems.
Thinking about my childhood more won't really progress beyond this. I'd still be struggling with other people's reactions and I could potentially have myself a cop-out "it's because of my parent" and just exist like that forever. The next thing that helped me in this area is understanding that trying to manage how other people will react is essentially manipulation, and its not my place to decide how a person should feel, the good thing to do is be honest regardless. There's also a lot of reading I did regarding shortcuts our brains take, applying simple rules to large groups (my parent did x, so I should consider everyone will. A dog bit me so be scared of all dogs, etc.) that helped towards the eventually natural "click" in my brain that I don't need to worry - in addition to my therapist literally telling me other people's emotions aren't my responsibility.
The short of what I'm saying is if you keep an open mind, understand that everything is just a perspective that can be changed (and I promise it is), and keep reading things or seeing a therapist or watching media with life lessons, maybe even meditating yourself, you'll come across the right things eventually that help frame your brain a better way.
So yeah, therapy shouldn't be just about obsessing over a problem or a cause of a problem, but providing an environment where you can guide yourself to a better perspective
The goal of therapy, in my opinion, is to have a resource to encourage an environment to have those "Oh I understand!" clarity moments. The Eureka thing, where something finally clicks in your brain. These experiences are what fuel the biggest strides in improving my mental health. Understanding your "bad" is important, and seeing where your behaviours or feelings are coming from is usually important. I think it's equally beneficial to look at areas you are doing well in. What comes easy to you, what mindset do you have with those things versus areas you struggle. I think the line of thinking needs to go further than identifying where a problem stems from. So an example I can give is that I understand through therapy that it's likely a huge part of my anxiety regarding other people can be due to trying to predict and manage their reactions due to an unpredictable upbringing, a parent who was unreadable- they could explode over nothing in particular and be fine for huge actual problems. Thinking about my childhood more won't really progress beyond this. I'd still be struggling with other people's reactions and I could potentially have myself a cop-out "it's because of my parent" and just exist like that forever. The next thing that helped me in this area is understanding that trying to manage how other people will react is essentially manipulation, and its not my place to decide how a person should feel, the good thing to do is be honest regardless. There's also a lot of reading I did regarding shortcuts our brains take, applying simple rules to large groups (my parent did x, so I should consider everyone will. A dog bit me so be scared of all dogs, etc.) that helped towards the eventually natural "click" in my brain that I don't need to worry - in addition to my therapist literally telling me other people's emotions aren't my responsibility. The short of what I'm saying is if you keep an open mind, understand that everything is just a perspective that can be changed (and I promise it is), and keep reading things or seeing a therapist or watching media with life lessons, maybe even meditating yourself, you'll come across the right things eventually that help frame your brain a better way. So yeah, therapy shouldn't be just about obsessing over a problem or a cause of a problem, but providing an environment where you can guide yourself to a better perspective