Brian Jeffrey
For zodiac enthusiasts, Jennifer Freed, PhD, is the self-help hybrid of your dreams, a psychologist who also utilizes astrology (a psychological astrologer) to help patients cope with life in ways best suited to their unique makeup. According to Dr. Freed, each member of the zodiac tends to seek therapy for reasons specific to their astrological chart. No matter where in your chart a sign falls—sun, moon, or rising—it likely impacts the areas of your life in which you need pro assistance, says the in-demand therapist.
Astrology may also dictate whether you’re a fan of therapy or avoidant. “Air signs like to be in their head and not in their feelings and bodies, so we could have Aquarius and Gemini and Libra avoiding therapy,” she says (noting that Sagittarius “might also want to run for the hills”). Water signs, meanwhile, may experience the opposite issue. “They stay in therapy forever because sometimes they just drown in their own recollections and feelings,” says Dr. Freed. “So, it’s important for the therapist that they go to to hold them accountable to growth.”
Keep reading to find out more about the your sign’s unique stressors and how to deal with them.
A psychological astrologer explains what each zodiac sign wants to talk about in therapy
Aries
“Aries most often come in to therapy [to deal with] impetuousness, recklessness, and anger,” says Dr. Freed.
To combat these issues, Dr. Freed recommends slowing down to be more contemplative. “It’s about meditation and breathing,” she says.
Taurus
Taurus clients tend to come in to therapy frequently, says Dr. Freed. “They have physical symptoms, like something’s wrong with their body, and it might be psychosomatic,” she says. “The reason they’re in therapy is because they feel stuck—something is showing up where they can’t break through.” These clients, she adds, also tend to struggle with what’s called misplaced loyalty. “They stay too long in situations they should be out of,” says Dr. Freed.
To combat these issues, Dr. Freed says that those with this sign in their chart need to practice a gratitude habit every day in order to be thankful for what they have. “They also need to learn on a weekly basis to gives things away without being recognized for it,” she says. “So in other words, helping an elderly person across the street or giving a gift to someone you know without them knowing you gave it to them.”
Gemini
“Gemini is going to come to therapy because they need to talk a lot and they need to tell a good story,” says Dr. Freed. “And they need to learn how to ground and to anchor and to work on calming their mind.”
To aid them in these efforts, Dr. Freed recommends that Geminis keep a daily journal routine. “Write out all the different distractions and then keep an accountability list of three things you say you’re going to do and check them off,” she says. “So it’s like narrative therapy, where you tell a story, but then really be specific about your goals and stick with them each and every day.”
Cancer
“Cancer might go to therapy because of issues relating to family, mothering, nurturing, and maybe disordered eating,” says Dr. Freed.
“Cancers have to learn how to set appropriate boundaries with other people so that they are getting as much as they’re giving,” she explains. “They need to understand that over-giving is emotionally crippling.”
Leo
For Leos, therapy is going to center around getting their emotional needs met. “Somehow they need more attention, they need more love and affection, and they need to figure out how be the star of their own life,” she says.
One key thing she’d says Leos should do to do is learn the difference between drama and dharma. “It’s about focusing on healthy expressions of creativity instead of just regurgitating soap opera type scenarios,” she says.
Virgo
“Virgos would be coming in because they are either having some OCD problems—obsessive compulsive disorders—or they are dealing with an incredibly vicious inner self critic,” she says. “Or they are coming in because they’re over-giving and feel like a martyr.”
Dr. Freed recommends that Virgos take up activities that have nothing to do with being perfect. “So like free drawing, free painting, free dancing—something where they let go of the need to be right or perfect in favor of finding a more flowing and spontaneous kind of movement,” she says.
Libra
“Libras come in to therapy because they are out of balance in their life—they’re juggling too many things and want to have more depth and focus and less surface,” she says.
They should, she suggests, focus on learning how to negotiate win/win solutions in life. “So it’s not you or me, not us or them, but it’s yes, and… yes, and…,” she says. “It’s learning the art of negotiation.”
Scorpio
“Scorpio could come in for anything to do with the dark side—sex, drugs, scary thoughts, and lots of self-doubt and shame,” says Dr. Freed.
For this sign, she prescribes anything to do with Brené Brown‘s work on undoing shame.
Sagittarius
Sagittarius seeks therapy, says Dr. Freed, because they want to understand themselves better. “They want more freedom in their life, they want to have more joy in their life, and they want an existential sense of meaning and more purpose,” she says.
For members of this zodiac sign, it’s important to keep “positive mindset-type books” on hand at all times. “Constantly review what it means to have a positive mindset and keep that as your anthem on a daily basis,” she suggests. (Might I suggest The Art of Happiness?)
Capricorn
“Capricorn comes into therapy because of depression or pessimism or not feeling recognized or relevant,” says Dr. Freed, who notes that they may also be overworking and feeling burdened.
“These are the people that need to work on approval being an inside job, not an outside job,” she says. “So finding ways to self-validate on a daily basis and gain a sense of inner confidence based on their own deeds and their words.”
aquarius
“Aquarius comes to therapy because they’re too detached or aloof emotionally and need to learn to feel,” says the psychological astrologer. “And also because they carry the weight of the world on their shoulders.” They may also attend therapy for awakening and personal growth—”to become more evolved,” she says.
“It would be anything to do with walking and humble feet, e.g. gardening in nature,” she says. “Like bringing the sky to earth—Aquarius is an air sign—getting in touch with what it means to be human, and doing daily inventory of their human needs and vulnerabilities and expressing those routinely to others.”
pisces
“Highly-sensitive Pisces might come to therapy for any reason, because they need to cry, they need to be held metaphorically, they need to complain, and they need to find their feet—because they’re always feeling under the water, so to speak, emotionally,” she says. “They’re trying to find a way to express themselves without getting lost in other people.”
“Pisces needs to keep a feelings journal to they name all their feelings without stories,” says Dr. Freed. “So in other words, instead of saying ‘I’m so mad at her because she lied to me’ and ‘I’m so mad at him because he doesn’t value me’, it’s ‘I’m just mad, I’m frustrated, I’m hurt.’” People with this sign in their chart, she says, needs to have an expanded vocabulary around their feelings. “They need to learn how to notice what they feel and name it to tame it, to lose the story and only talk about things that brings them more joy and power,” says Dr. Freed.
Wish you could see Dr. Freed? Find out what happened when one writer did. Plus, here’s how astrology made another writer more self-aware, reflective, and accountable (aka accomplished the goals of therapy, free of charge!).
Written by: WellGood
