~ Psychotherapy ~
The therapy process can help you to develop more authentic communication, healthier interpersonal relationships, more satisfying work, school, and family life, and greater self-confidence. Some of the tools you can learn in therapy include: increased awareness of unconscious beliefs and behaviors, relaxing the internal conflicts which create anxiety and stress, focusing on inner strengths for making healthy choices, and identifying your barriers to living a more joyful life.
You can also expand your range of emotions and learn to understand and accept your states of mind with less fear and judgement. When you have more compassion toward yourself, you have access to more choices in responding to life's situations, especially challenging ones!
Therapy can support you in finding balance in your life, taking care of both self and others, and understanding the relationship between the past, present, and future.
You can also expand your range of emotions and learn to understand and accept your states of mind with less fear and judgement. When you have more compassion toward yourself, you have access to more choices in responding to life's situations, especially challenging ones!
Therapy can support you in finding balance in your life, taking care of both self and others, and understanding the relationship between the past, present, and future.
Talking is not solid, but fluid, it reflects what is true in the moment, a constant process of moving toward deeper understanding and letting go. Hearing ourselves talk can shift our awareness or emotions, move us into a different place, or release something that we no longer need to hold onto. Allowing ourselves to speak freely, not believing our words to be the truth beyond this moment, can express the fleeting nature of our minds, and free us from the attachment we often feel to our own thoughts.
Being heard by someone who does not react with judgment in a way that we might predict, fear, or desire, can free us from our own patterns of reaction and self-judgment. The “therapeutic relationship” between a client and therapist is a crucial part of the success of the work we do together. Directly or indirectly, the elements of how much we trust another person, how honestly we communicate, how it feels to be truly seen and heard, and how we see ourselves reflected through another person, are all present in our working relationship.
Being heard by someone who does not react with judgment in a way that we might predict, fear, or desire, can free us from our own patterns of reaction and self-judgment. The “therapeutic relationship” between a client and therapist is a crucial part of the success of the work we do together. Directly or indirectly, the elements of how much we trust another person, how honestly we communicate, how it feels to be truly seen and heard, and how we see ourselves reflected through another person, are all present in our working relationship.
I’ve heard the question many times, “What is therapy? What changes if all we do is talk?” Well, actually, things do change when we talk. Talking is an active process in which unconscious associations are made as we speak, leading us into deeper layers of our psyche. Freud said that the process of therapy is bringing the unconscious into consciousness. As we speak, our mind makes associations with what we are saying, which leads us on a tangent, which then leads to another tangent, and so on. This process can uncover things that are not readily available to our conscious mind, but are several layers down in our unconscious mind. They may not seem related in a rational way, but may be the very source of our current experiences. This uncovering process leads us down the non-linear path into ourselves, with the guidance of a therapist who then helps identify connections, patterns, and tools for understanding the material that has come up.
Some people say, “Nothing new comes up in therapy. It’s all stuff I already know.” This may be true, but what is new is how we connect our behaviors, memories, experiences, and realizations so that they make more sense in the big picture of our lives. Many of us tend to repeat challenging experiences in our lives, sometimes over and over. The good news is that we have the potential to gain new insight from it each time, and to practice new ways of responding to a repetitive pattern that we may have previously been stuck in. With increased awareness, and a curiosity towards our situation, we can look at what is happening from a more objective position, to gain a deeper understanding and compassion towards ourselves.
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Some people say, “Nothing new comes up in therapy. It’s all stuff I already know.” This may be true, but what is new is how we connect our behaviors, memories, experiences, and realizations so that they make more sense in the big picture of our lives. Many of us tend to repeat challenging experiences in our lives, sometimes over and over. The good news is that we have the potential to gain new insight from it each time, and to practice new ways of responding to a repetitive pattern that we may have previously been stuck in. With increased awareness, and a curiosity towards our situation, we can look at what is happening from a more objective position, to gain a deeper understanding and compassion towards ourselves.
Email me to receive my monthly newsletter:
[email protected]