Posted on July 20, 2010 by alisonball

I am realizing that there are various themes that I will want to follow, come back to and/or start a conversation. One is about the many forms of meeting between people that may be called psychotherapy and the variety of ideas as to what makes for a good psychotherapist. I do have fairly strong views on the subject. For much of the time in some psychotherapy sessions, the objective observer may see very little that is different from many counselling sessions. And some counsellors do psychotherapy. Like counselling, psychotherapy in general, I think, can help with day to day problems and can help to work out strategies for living and for relationships. It can also often bring quite rapid relief of current distress that has brought the person along to talk to a therapist. However, short term and quick fixes are not what real psychotherapy is about or what a well trained psychotherapist must be prepared to do if it is required.

People do come to see me because they are in some sort of distress. Frequently I find that they they have already done a fair bit of work on themselves and perhaps attended lots of self development courses, or read lots of self help books or even been to see professionals who offer relatively short term or intermittent sessions. Often they have found all this very helpful and they may have found lots of strategies that work for them. They have often heard about CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and that has sometimes been part of their seeking after help.  And those short term therapies are terrific and can be all that many people need.

But, for those who find their way to my door, there is usually some gut feeling that they need something more. They may not know what it is but they know they have still not got to the root of their issues. That is our starting point. We start with what is happening for them NOW, why and how they have found their way to me at this particular time in their lives. Psychotherapy then for me is a process of discovery- an adventure that may help to put current events into the context of their whole life.

This is a really personal adventure. By talking about their own inner world- often for the first time- and having an available witness to their life’s experience means that, in essence, people often feel like they have discovered themselves for the first time. In this encounter too, my inner world will also be affected which can mirror or be different from, what happens in the world for this person.  My task is to make use of the ways in which I am affected, and bring my thoughts and ideas to the surface and into the meeting between us in such a way that is helpful to the person’s understanding of themselves and how they work in the world. That way we can both gain in understanding and make sense of this person’s unique way of being in the world. This is the process that is often sufficient, in and of itself, to bring about change.