Aims to identify and address the root causes of the problem.
Psychotherapy is a deeper form of therapy aiming to explore and understand the origins of difficulties. By working through a broader range of issues that may have been experienced for a long period of time, it offers a deeper insight into emotional turmoil and conflicts which may be underlying the presenting difficulties.
Psychotherapy helps you to become aware of your unconscious thoughts and behaviours, which may stem from childhood and can lead to recurrent themes or patterns, often affecting relationships. Psychotherapy targets the origins of these difficulties and supports you in ways to overcome them while offering a deeper insight into emotional capacity which may be underlying your current behaviours.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Through psychotherapy, you can develop a greater capacity to be in charge of your life, by developing greater self-awareness and a new perspective on your life, your relationships, day-to-day experiences and personal issues. Together with your therapist, you will address symptom reduction, and address the causes of longstanding patterns in your life to support improved functioning. This usually involves a restructuring of the personality or self in psychotherapy, a restoration to your original self, before all the hurts and challenging life experiences. In this way, psychotherapy can be a long-term process rather than a short-term Band-Aid approach, which usually redirects from the underlying cause of the problem. In psychotherapy the aim is to identify and address the root cause of the problem.
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy – the treatment of choice when the problem is deeply rooted in the character and personality structure.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is an ambitious form of therapy in terms of its scope and aims. It is very similar to psychotherapy and supports a process of change, however approaches understanding self from a different angle.
Psychoanalytic therapy explores your symptoms and often finds the origins stem from childhood – frequently in pain (emotional and physical) and trauma. Brief therapies can’t really get to the roots of the problem in a way that psychoanalytic psychotherapy can. It takes significant time to unravel the complexity of the problems, often because of defences that are protecting against emotions and memories that are painful, create anxiety, sadness or anger.
It is a form of depth psychology based on saying whatever comes to mind, which helps you and your therapist become aware of hidden meanings or patterns in what you say or do that might be contributing to your conflicts. These are often old unconscious patterns that perhaps have served you well in the past and that you continue to act out in your life that may be or become a form of self-sabotage. Psychoanalytic psychotherapists are interested in what is on your mind so will wait for you to talk. There can be periods of silence, but it doesn’t mean the therapist is unhelpful. With an analytic approach, your therapist will be highly attuned and empathetic to what is going on for you, but will also remain quite neutral, ensuring that their personal feelings and reactions are not shared with you. There are no expectations and you are free to speak whatever is on your mind. The focus is to reveal unconscious thoughts and content and your therapist listens carefully to identify certain patterns or things you often think or talk about.
You may come to understand patterns of discomfort, dissatisfaction or suffering in your life. This brings relief and opens up possibilities of seeing things in a new light and offers a way to move forward. By making meaning of this, you are able to make more conscious choices that lead to a different experience of you and the world around you. Inner work and movement allow you to resolve conflicts and improve your ability to cope with situations. This usually involves a restructuring of the personality or self in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. In this way, psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis is a long-term process and involves weekly or bi-weekly sessions for a minimum of 6 months.