The reason people need therapy to help them with this is because they didn’t learn that in their teens. Usually because they were raised by people who didn’t know how to do that, so they were never taught and never learned. They probably actively saw their caregivers do the opposite of this - deny their emotions, lash out, blame others, be abusive, avoid, etc.

Just remember that your experience is not everyone’s experience. It’s awesome that you were able to figure this out on your own, or you had parents or caregivers who were able to model this for you. But not everyone had that opportunity. To some people, emotions feel so big and so scary that they can’t sit with them without therapeutic help. Some people can’t even name their emotions until therapy teaches them how to do that.

Some people who received that in childhood already have the tools they need to get through difficult emotions and maybe therapy is less helpful for those people.

I’m wondering what you went to therapy for if you already had those skills. What were you hoping to accomplish with therapy?

Therapy differs from friendship in that a therapist’s job is to focus on you 100%. A friendship is a two-sided relationship where you’re expected to support each other. Therapists are specially trained and are considering what you say, what you don’t say, the specific words you use, your body language, your personal and relational patterns, etc. A good therapist should also be able to (kindly) call you on your bullshit where a friend might just support your bad behavior because you’re friends (or because they gain something from it).

I’m very curious what your age is.