Therapy takes place within a private and confidential setting, where you can feel safe to explore problems without feeling judged and it gives you time to think and reflect on what is impacting your life and helps put positive changes in place. Counselling and Psychotherapy offers the opportunity to put things into perspective and assists towards gaining a deeper understanding of your relationships and develop greater self-awareness. It helps you to recognise emotions, thoughts and behaviours that perhaps hold you back or are interfering with your day-to-day life and in time, you will think more positively, clearly and calmly, leading you towards feeling better about yourself.
We will take time to explore and understand the unconscious aspects of your behaviours, thoughts and feelings and by doing so, we will be able to identify what is contributing to emotions that you feel are perhaps hindering or upsetting you in some way. You may wish to explore your issues from a here and now perspective, or you might wish to focus upon making changes for your future and perhaps also want time to explore the meaning of what has happened to you in your past and find ways in which you can change and feel more at ease with yourself.
As well as being the facilitator towards better mental health, counselling and psychotherapy doesn’t just resolve emotional and psychological difficulties. It can be a catalyst for personal growth and development and the key to unlocking and discovering your true authentic self.
Integrative psychotherapy brings together various psychotherapeutic approaches and has the view that no single approach is relevant for all situations. You as a client are unique and as such the therapeutic technique implemented must be tailored to your needs and the personal circumstances you present.
We are complex beings with complex thinking mechanisms and as such cannot have one brush stroke method applied to us. No one single theory can offer a comprehensive answer to all the personal challenges we face. The Integrative Approach takes into account that we all have different personalities, characteristics, experiences and individual needs and hence why those differences are reflected by the use of different approaches that match those varied human elements we all possess.
However, when all is said and done, for therapy to work, it must at the heart of it have a strong, containing, trusting relationship between therapist and client. That is when the work truly begins.
At times, therapy may feel very challenging and possibly even unbearable as we explore together the conflicts you are battling with internally. You will gain insight and profound awareness of yourself, which in time will bring with it relief and knowledge to help you change unhelpful patterns of behaviour, overcome difficult feelings and in turn improve your wellbeing. Often clients describe it as a roller-coaster experience of self-discovery but one that can profoundly change you for the better and help make positive healthy changes. It is a journey of constant self-discovery.
Counselling and Psychotherapy can help access deep-rooted concerns that may lie within our unconscious thoughts and may address problems that have developed over a longer period of time, often finding links with events or experiences that have occurred in your past. Together we may explore early life experiences and look at persistent or distressing emotional problems. You will unravel feelings which may have been burdening you for some time and are still impacting you in the here and now.
Making a choice about which therapist to choose can be difficult and sometimes confusing. How you choose your therapist and what factors help you decide, must be down to you and not influenced by others. Feeling you can trust them, that you will feel safe with them, that you will be listened to, understood and not judged, should all form part of your decision-making process.
Taking that first step to get in touch can be terrifying and can evoke lots of mixed and unnerving feelings. It may add to the feelings of vulnerability, but this is absolutely normal. It also shows immense courage and inner strength that will undoubtedly form a part of the journey you are about to embark on.
With all this in mind, it is important that when choosing your therapist, you consider their qualifications, that they have undergone recognised and approved training, and are registered with a professional body recognised by the professional standards authority.
For psychotherapy and counselling to work, it will need you to trust and embrace the relationship. It will need commitment, patience, courage to face difficult emotions and for you to be kind and compassionate to yourself. As the relationship develops you will gain profound insight of yourself helping you to become more accepting of yourself, have a better understanding yourself which in time will enable positive change to happen.
It is very natural to feel nervous and apprehensive about starting therapy. It takes great courage to even make that first step of making the enquiry. Sometimes asking for help can seem a daunting thought, perhaps even inconceivable. I know, I’ve been there myself and have experienced this first-hand and so can empathise wholeheartedly with the feelings you might be experiencing. But trust me, taking that first step can be life changing.
When we talk for the first time, it will give us the opportunity to discuss whether psychotherapy or counselling would be helpful for you at this time. It will give you the chance to consider whether you feel we can work together and more importantly whether you will feel safe and comfortable to take that journey of self-discovery with me.
I very much look forward to hearing from you and working alongside you whilst you embark on your journey of self-discover and better mental health and well-being.
An Accredited Member of both The British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy and The National Counselling Society
Irvin D Yalom
