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Three good reasons to consider psychotherapy
There is more to you than you let on.
Many of us operate at less than our full potential. Make a list of your talents and interests. How much of your time do you invest in them? How much of your energy goes into joyful, meaningful, creative endeavors? A question once posed to me brings the point home: Would the child you were be proud of the adult you've become? As children we all had dreams about the future. What were your dreams? Are you living them now? So often we let insecurities and other people's goals for us guide our activities.
Symptoms of this include feeling overwhelmed, anxious or scattered. Living this way robs us of our capacity to enjoy the present. Psychotherapy can offer support and insight as we bring our lives into focus and our center of being back inside ourselves.
A painful pattern has been repeated.
When one relationship (or job or friendship) ends as painfully and mysteriously as the last one there may be a pattern that needs looking at. We have both conscious and unconscious motivation. Part of why we as human beings need each other is that we all have blind spots, areas where we are unconscious. Usually a blind spot covers up an old trauma, the pain of which has not been fully dealt with. We numb the pain in order to survive it but pay for that numbness in depression and/or anxiety.
Psychotherapy aims to help us make conscious patterns that are anchored in old trauma so we can release the feelings we have had to repress. In doing so it opens us to a new awareness of ourselves and our world. We can break old patterns, and indeed must, if we are to grow. This process requires support and psychotherapy is one source of support for change and growth.
A bad habit is getting the best of you.
City life offers those of us driven by our insecurities many different ways to avoid ourselves. Not that all diversion is evil - it's not a crime to have a good time but many of the things that promise the most pleasure can become obessions if we are scared enough. We can find ourselves enslaved to our habits. The additive cycle can be hard to understand and break out of without support.
Psychotherapy can be helpful in uncovering the sources of fear and anxiety that make us vulnerable to bad habits and addictions and save us wasted months and years.
There are other reasons to consider psychotherapy: depression that lasts over six weeks, phobias that interfere with everyday life, a crisis that requires support in sorting through, losing a loved one, discovering a threat to physical health, dealing with issues of getting older, chronic insomnia, fatigue or loss of appetite. It has been a privelege for me to assist many people with varying problems over the past thirty years.
If you are interested in learning more about psychotherapy and how I work please contact me.
