Psychotherapy
Does life have to be so hard? Psychotherapy can help you feel in control again.
Why does this keep happening?
If you sometimes find yourself wondering why the same old patterns keep happening in your life then it might be time to see a psychotherapist. Psychotherapy is helpful for people who would like to increase their understanding of themselves and improve their ability to cope with difficulties and problems in their lives.
People coming for psychotherapy are often aware of repetitive impulses or patterns in their life that trouble them and that they would like to change. Whereas counselling tends to focus on a specific situation, psychotherapy focuses more on the longstanding parts of our personality that we would like to improve. Whilst we can’t make ourselves into someone that we are not, when we understand ourselves more clearly we can gain some mastery over our reactions rather than be a slave to them. We can begin to feel better about ourselves and regain a sense of choice over which direction life will take.
Why do I keep getting depressed?
How come I always feel so anxious?
I don’t know why I get so angry.
Why do I always end up in destructive relationships?
I have such big reactions to seemingly small events.
I know I’ll end up doing it again but it feels beyond my control.
I seem to sabotage all my relationships but I don’t know why.
I have such low esteem.
A psychotherapist will help you to explore your present and past experiences so you can make sense of why you feel the way you do and begin to understand why certain situations trigger specific (and perhaps undesirable) responses. The process of psychotherapy will help you develop new and more effective ways of managing challenging situations through an increased understanding of yourself and the experiences and events in your life which have shaped you.
What happens during the session?
Sessions are 50 minutes long and usually occur weekly. Your therapist will help you to understand what experiences in your life have influenced who you are now, and how the ways you have learned to cope in the past might help or hinder you in the present. Rather than focus on a specific situation, the focus will be on how you experience the situation, and through this you will begin to understand how you shape your life and how your life shapes you.
Make your life going forward better than your life looking back
Psychotherapy is about understanding what makes you who you are so that you can regain some choice over your reactions to life’s challenges. Looking back on our lives most of have some moments that we wish we had handled differently; a psychotherapist can help you develop better ways of reacting when these moments occur in the future. As we begin to understand our past actions more clearly we can reap the benefits of this insight and open up possibilities for a more satisfying way of living.