Therapy (psychotherapy) is a process of learning more about yourself.
When you understand yourself better, you have more ability to change the patterns that might be getting in the way of feeling as good as you would like.
If you are like most people, you run on auto-pilot; having the same thoughts and reactions day in and day out. You often WANT to change certain patterns, such as negative thinking or using a substance to temporarily feel better, but you find that your engrained tendencies keep pulling you back to the familiar.
Therapy can help you think and act in new ways, by learning techniques to increase awareness to your thoughts and emotions, by learning how to let go and/or reframe unhelpful thoughts, and by learning how to cope in all types of emotional situations.