About Psychotherapy

This blog will feature some information about psychotherapy - including ideas about how it can support healing and growth – and topics related to the experience of therapy.

What is therapy for?

Psychotherapy can help when you are experiencing difficult feelings and when you want to make a change. For those who come to therapy to find relief from emotional discomfort, the therapeutic relationship is a powerful resource. But there are other possibilities on offer.

The therapy room encourages the growth of the seeds of your self. You may be seeking to change how relationships with other people play out, grow your confidence or self-esteem, or develop a stronger sense of knowing who you are and what you want for yourself. Psychotherapy offers you an environment with warmth and nourishment that is attentively adjusted, moment-to-moment, to support you to thrive.

Feeling understood is transformative. As Russell Meares writes in The Metaphor of Play (2005, p. 181), empathy is the “principal agent of beneficial change” for a person engaging in psychotherapy. In the next blog entry I will discuss the difference between empathy and sympathy and how understanding supports the growth of the self.

What is therapy like?

The conversations that happen in therapy are similar to those you might have with friends in some ways: a sense of warmth and familiarity grows and supports the discussions you have with a therapist. But in the therapeutic relationship you have the opportunity to focus on your experience and feelings with someone alongside you who deeply listens without needing the same in return. This provides what for many is a unique opportunity to reflect and work through challenges with undivided attention.

Therapy is sometimes intense: the conversation may move to areas that bring up difficult feelings, but this is good news. Experiencing these feelings in a safe environment, with a compassionate and skilled listener, is a key opportunity for taking steps towards greater resilience and confidence.

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