Why Psychotherapy?
“The need is for someone to meet someone at a deep level” (D.W. Winnicott)
We all experience times when we feel stuck. Perhaps you have become distant from your feelings, or in the grip of strong emotions you can’t control. Perhaps you find yourself repeating patterns of behaviour or ways of relating which might be damaging to yourself and others. Or you may feel empty, or purposeless, as if your life has no meaning.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy has a good track record amongst modern talking therapies. It focuses on you, not your symptoms, helping you to understand the root causes of your recurring feelings or behaviours, which may be based in childhood. With this understanding comes relief, and the prospect of change.
This is not a one-size-fits-all approach, nor is it a quick fix. This kind of therapy focuses on the issues each person brings, facilitating an open-ended process which will take as long as you need. Your willingness to commit to this process in terms of time and openness to work on long-standing difficulties helps change to happen.
You can read more about psychotherapy here.
How it works
Psychotherapy offers you a private and confidential setting in which you and your therapist work together to uncover and explore the unknown parts of your self which may be contributing to your present distress.
Over time and through the relationship between us I hope you will discover new ways of approaching life, less compromised by the old habits that are making you suffer. For example, you might find that you are able to express feelings you’d long buried, or to see your family in a new way, or to express your anger directly for the first time.
The psychotherapeutic process is distinctive and people can sometimes find it unsettling at first. Each week, for 50 minutes, you can talk about whatever comes to mind - feelings, thoughts, memories, dreams, books, films – or you can stay silent. I usually say very little, but will attend as closely as I can to the less conscious aspects of what you bring that may be informing your difficulties.