When Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is about self-exploration and discovery. In our culture, we aren’t taught to listen to our feelings. It’s so ingrained in us to suppress emotions, that a lot of my clients come to me because someone else pointed it out to them. Maybe they weren’t keeping themselves up the way they used to or they had stopped being involved, but whatever it was, they just weren’t quite themselves.

Your emotional self may be locked away much of the time, but it still has an impact, making you question yourself, influencing your reactions to challenging situations, even altering your physical health. This last, often overlooked connection between the mind and body can mean real physical suffering and pain and can affect your health in the long term.

I can’t list every scenario where psychotherapy can help, but here are some from common experience.

  • The challenge of life events. These can be negative, like the ending of a relationship, the loss of employment, or the death of a loved one. But we can also experience similarly conflicting emotions from positive events like the marriage of a child.
     
  • Persistent and unresolved feelings. Left unaddressed, these can have a growing negative impact on your everyday life. By recognizing them, we can diffuse them.
     
  • Negative feelings about yourself. At one point we’ve all looked into the mirror and seen a fraud looking back at us. It helps everyone to learn to cope with self-criticism.
     
  • Negative relationships. There are reasons that some of us consistently find ourselves in negative relationships. By learning to recognize these patterns in ourselves, we can break them.
     
  • Addiction. Regardless of the type of addiction, it catches up with us and makes us feel out of control. Recognizing the reasons we abuse behaviors or substances is a critical step toward recovery.
     
  • Wanting to be a better parent. Challenge of challenges: a peaceful, happy home and real communication with your children. Knowing enough about yourself to know why you react to your children like you do can help make you a better parent and your children better people.
     
  • An interest in growth. Everyone that comes to me for therapy comes in a moment of crisis. The ones who stay are the ones who enjoy their growth as a person.

Life is challenging. Understanding yourself can make it a whole lot less daunting.