A few months after the pandemic struck and I found myself stuck back home, in the Armenian capital Yerevan, I struggled to adapt to my new reality. I would rarely leave bed for days on end. By July 2020, the situation got out of hand—with a shaking voice, I called a therapist a friend recommended and made an appointment.

I had been curious about therapy before 2020, but the general stigma around it in Armenia was enough for me to put aside any thoughts of finding a therapist. 

But the shock of the pandemic and the upheaval of my plans was enough to push me to try it out. 

All I can remember from my first session is crying and talking at the same time, pulling down my mask, blowing my nose and continuing to talk and cry for an hour. 

In real life, every time I felt like crying, I would stop talking, as it seems one of the most uncomfortable things for others to watch anyone cry and talk at the same time. But in therapy, I was given the space to do just that. A stranger was listening to me, taking in a tangled version of my life story. 

I went back the next week, and then the next … talking for an hour, crying or just sitting there looking at one spot, trying to digest the questions my therapist asked me after my monologues, or rather, trying to digest my answers to those questions.

Traditionally, Armenian society has not been open about the concept of therapy or psychologists. People felt problems should be discussed in the home and if someone was seeking help from a stranger, it meant there was something seriously wrong with them. But over the past few years, the situation has been changing. I thought I would never be comfortable talking about therapy but soon I found I was able to not only tell my friends and parents that I was in therapy, but also suggest it to others. 

Aram Hovsepyan, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, president of the Armenian Mental Health Association, suggests that the therapy service has developed since the war in 2020. “There were at least two centers that opened up for helping people affected by the war , one of them as ‘frontline therapists,’” he said, which has helped reduce the stigma around therapy.

In the last two years more centers opened up—and not all of them were connected to the war.  Aystegh (here in Armenian) Psychology Center, is one of the new centers. It opened up only a few months ago. Psychologist and co-founder Yeva Asribabayan says more people in Armenia began seeking psychological help since COVID 19 and the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh War. “Crises like war or pandemics naturally sharpen anxieties, worries and all our vulnerabilities. This is a universal mechanism all around the world: wars actuate the development of anthropological and medical fields, and these days they also actuate the development of the mental health field and the perceptions of it,” she says.

But even as it gains popularity, the sector is rife with problems—in particular the lack of regulations to license  therapists and unethical practices. On social media, there are scores of people promoting themselves as “therapists” without any special training.  Looking through their posts and watching their videos, I wondered if the “red flags” would be visible to someone who has not attended therapy before.  

In Armenia, as the field is not regulated, people can work as a therapist without any sort of specialized degree. “In reality even the existence of a diploma is not enough itself for giving psychotherapeutic services. There can be people presenting themselves as psychologists and promising unreal results: solving all the childhood traumas in one or two meetings for example,” Asribabayan says. “And this shapes people's minds about psychologists.”

 She believes the psychologists should be responsible for representing their profession—not adding to confusion about what therapy is or how it should be conducted. 

Asribabayan has been using Instagram to publicize the therapy process and raise public awareness about self-care. She says the social media platform has helped shift society’s perspective about therapy although not without some hiccups. She says people sometimes perceive psychologists as “gurus” who live perfect, problem-free lives.  

 “If I present myself as someone who doesn’t have problems, I help create the stereotype that an ideal person exists. But the true and difficult work of therapy is all about accepting vulnerability and inner difficulties together with a client. If a specialist presents themselves as a ‘guru,’ their client will also strive to [become one] which will only multiply their feeling of guilt,” Asribabayan says. 

Armenian Mental Health Association president Hovsepyan believes people have the responsibility to ensure they are turning to qualified professionals for help. Even though there is no license system in Armenia, Hovsepyan says the good professionals usually have their professional background available online. Another sign of professionalism is if a psychologist or therapist works with an educational institute.  “The impression the visitor gets in one or two sessions is very important,” he says. “The therapist should not violate your boundaries, you should feel good in their presence, not judged or critiqued. You should not feel that they see anything wrong about you or your identity.”

Asribabayan and Hovsepyan both underscored the role of clients’ own testimonials in building trust with wider society. When they share their experience with their families and networks, they help others understand the importance of mental health.

Journalist and TV host Arusik Tigranyan regularly shares information about therapy, psychology and mental health with her 250,000 Instagram followers. When she first tried therapy in 2019, she was looking for tools to deal with her sudden popularity and the pressures that came with it. 

She said once she started to feel the “wow effect” of therapy on her life she wanted to share it with people outside her closest friends. “I knew I was not ready at the moment, but it was a dream to me to be so strong one day to be able to talk about this, so that many people know they can live, feel and think differently,” she says.

Tigranyan says the first two therapists she visited were not a good fit—one was older and seemed more eager to share her life experiences than listen to Tigranyan’s needs. The second had actually “liked” posts that were critical of Tigranyan. 

“But I didn't get disappointed in psychology as a whole: there are many bad doctors in the world, but that doesn’t mean medicine becomes less important”. Later she tried again and found a practice that fit her needs. She began going to a therapist regularly.  

Despite the fact that she was happy with her therapist and the impact the sessions were having on her life, she still felt judged.  “In the beginning I had the feeling it was shameful that I visited a therapist. I realized there was nothing to be ashamed about, but as I knew people’s attitude towards therapy, I looked at myself with their eyes and saw myself as very vulnerable,” she said, adding that too often people look at challenges they face as something they have to live with—when in reality a therapist can help you address them . 

 “You might think that some things are just part of your character, for example you are a nervous person, but in reality it might have an underlying problem that has a solution and is not a part of a person's character.”

She gradually started talking about the importance of therapy and the differences between types of therapy—as well as self-awareness and self-development on Instagram. Many of her followers started asking questions, “When they see a public person talking about those problems, it gives them freedom to think about those problems, explore and question,” Tigranyan says, adding that today, most of her friends go to therapy. 

 “When you see it helps someone, changes their life and they start feeling better, you also want that for yourself… years ago, I wouldn't think that things could change so much in Armenia. Therapy is not only for solving the problems, it is about stability and self-consciousness. You overcome your fears and complexes when you take some of the burden from your shoulders.”