What is counselling and psychotherapy?
People choose counselling, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis for all sorts of reasons, such as:
- Broken or difficult relationships
- Loss and bereavement
- A sense of purposelessness
- Depression
- Blocked creativity
Psychotherapy and counselling help people gain a better understanding of themselves, of their thoughts, feelings and actions. Understanding the patterns that have dominated you, often without you realising, can bring the possibility of choice and change. In a secure environment with the psychotherapist or counsellor you can seek to discover what makes you who you are and what is on your mind.
Couple counselling works best if the couple come together but we are happy to work on relationship problems with individuals. This work deals with such issues as the impact on the couple of the arrival of children, difficult teenagers, financial problems, bereavement, retirement, affairs, or communication problems.
Psychoanalysis is based on the analysis of the conflicts that prevent you from functioning in the way you would wish to. It is an investigation into how you think and feel supported by the therapist who will provide non directive interpretations to help you gain insight and think and act differently. You speak about whatever you want to speak about; the therapist listens very attentively to your speech and works with your unconscious as revealed through free association, the analysis of your dreams and slips of the tongue. It is an approach to therapy which demands a commitment in time longer than any of the other therapies and requires a minimum of two sessions a week.