Psychotherapy is one of the core services provided by Holdsworth House counselling services. It is an efficient and effective therapy for individuals who want to achieve greater personal happiness through:
The relationship that evolves between the therapist and you is different to one you might have with family or colleagues. It is based on mutual respect and creates a space for the safe and honest exploration of sometimes difficult issues. Discussions never leave the room; judgmental observations have no place; rather a shared understanding emerges. Each session is a chance to talk, reflect, and discover. Understanding the origins of behaviours and your current feelings helps in restoring your internal organisation and your effectiveness.
Often the biggest obstacles to seeking psychotherapy are our perceptions around seeking help: embarrassment about our emotions or our perceived past failures; our pride in being self-sufficient; the cost and personal energy. Or a sense that the changes we want to make are overwhelmingly hard or too late. Occasionally we might even think and behave as though we don't deserve personal success.
Because these feelings are so common before meeting a therapist we thought it would be good to get them out in the open.
Over the period of therapy experiences and how things make us feel are discussed and re-examined bringing greater self-awareness; opportunities to generate new coping skills; enhanced relationship skills or learning to manage self-limiting behaviours.
Energies previously misdirected can be used to help reorganize and create a more coherent sense of being or 'self' which Russell Meares, formerly head of Psychiatry at Westmead Hospital, described as 'the ordinary ongoing sense of personal existence'. As you talk about your current sense of 'self' and how you respond to events, we will consider the mechanisms that organise your life and explore the new connections and skills required to build resilience and spirit.
Complex emotions and submerged feelings can be difficult to articulate. Therapy is the chance to learn a new language of 'self' which can help us untangle and manage our emotions and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
The language of therapy offers a way of seeing ourselves and others - an essential tool in working towards:
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is used to treat many psychological issues including depression, anxiety, phobias and compulsions. Participants learn new cognitions ('thoughts') and new behaviour strategies ('activities') after learning to recognise previous patterns maintaining their unwanted feelings. Negative thoughts and experiences 'program' certain nerve networks in the brain to automatically launch negative emotions like fear, or sadness too often. Encouraging new types of thoughts helps the brain learn to bi-pass networks involved in troubled feelings. New connections between less-used brain areas also grow, helping change responses to more positive ones.
The process has been likened to a computer (ie the brain) self-correcting its own malfunctioning programs. CBT therapeutic techniques are practised by the client, usually after learning them in therapy sessions guided by a psychologist, over a period between 3 and 6 months. Better stress resilience, feelings of self-control and more positive and stable moods are usual outcomes of successful treatment.
Gestalt Therapy (GT) promotes personal wellbeing by building increased awareness of physical sensations, mind states and orientation to surroundings. It is most often used with less verbally or visually orientated people who are more 'kinaesthetic' (physical) in the way they learn and express themselves. GT has proven very effective for helping release repressed emotional stress 'stored' characteristically in areas of frequent bodily tension. It heightens self-awareness and perception. It focuses on understanding emotional aspects of inter-relational dynamics between people and their social environments, such as power, aggression, frustration, personal stress limits, fear and anger. Participants work at identifying physical/emotional fields where their past suffering is still maintained. This awareness gradually promotes subtle changes in patterns of relating to others. The experience of re-sensitising to and visualising physical-emotional tension areas helps free blocked sensory areas for new experiences. Gradually understanding is gained about how old responses have helped misinterpretation of present surroundings.
Narrative Therapy (NT) is a 'psycho-social' healing method emphasising telling personal stories. Participants become reacquainted with sharing and discussing feelings with trusted others in a connected, intimate way. They verbally re-experience their lives while relating to a uniquely new person (the therapist) who listens intently and cares about their story. Some people, particularly if living in large cities, may become disconnected, withdrawn and isolated from others. Others have always been discouraged from openly verbalising and sharing their feelings in certain families, cultures or communities. Learning to trust a supportive confidante is an important challenge for these people. Increased feelings of social and interpersonal connectedness are a key aim of NT, as is feeling 'heard' supported and recognised by someone else for having experienced something important. NT often proves very useful where people are having difficulty verbalising their feelings after experiencing bereavement or other loss, past or recent traumatic events or serious breakdowns in communication in close relationships.
Psychodynamic Therapies are healing traditions which include both "psychotherapy" and "psychoanalysis". They use prescribed methods originating in the work of Sigmund Freud early last century. The techniques include free association, exploring change resistance, dream interpretation and examining hidden needs and expectations effects on relationships. Participants unresolved conflicts are brought to therapy, after originating in earlier life stages. Personal growth obstacles are defined and new goals identified, eg. more mature love, learning trust, or finding meaningful work. "Defences" are also defined, being unconscious impulses, caused by repressed internal conflict/anxiety, that motivate self-sabotaging actions. Removing defences helps resolve emotional blocks, allowing new insights and eventually bringing emotional "catharses" ('release') and better wellbeing. Psychodynamic techniques follow a long-term therapy course of many years, ending only when client goals are achieved. Psychodynamic skills are still used by psychologists, but most often are combined with other psychological techniques which work more rapidly, such as CBT,GT or NT. Recently, psychodynamic therapies are also offered increasingly by clinically untrained counsellors, who study the therapy methods before adopting the title "psychotherapist".
Guided Imagery techniques tap into the visual mind, based largely in the brain's right lobe. Participants are encouraged to visualise peaceful scenes or thematic patterns, shapes or other visual ideas and combine these with their "imagination" to help bring about positive, relaxing and pleasurable responses in the body, emotions and mind. Guided imagery can follow a script or be done in a more spontaneous way with participants, based on their own needs. Psychologists may often talk with clients first about their preferred images before taking the participant into a deep relaxed state and commencing visualisation. Some more successful practitioners record less individualised exercises on to CDs, while others may record actual sessions as they are undertaken and give these to participants to take home and re-use. Improving visual imagination can have positive impact on rehabilitation from all manner of psychological disturbances from minor stress to major mental health disorders. Guided imagery is increasingly accepted as an evidence-based holistic healing technique.
Relaxation training involves applying an individually tailored combination of techniques to assist relaxation, based on personal learning and interaction style. Participants undergoing personalised relaxation training usually start by communicating with their therapist about the type of person they characteristically are Some people use some psychological modalities more frequently than others. For example while some people communicate more verbally, or more physically through their physical senses, others are more visually or spatially attuned to their surrounds. After identifying the way people prefer to interact, the relaxation process initially begins with teaching deep diaphragmatic breathing, to evoke slower heart rate and heightened oxygen intake, reducing capacity for anxious or 'stressed' responding. This followed by particular combinations of guided imagery visualisation, open-ended visual imagination or internal dialogue verbalisation. The focus may also adopt more or less application of 'kinaesthetic' or bodily techniques, including progressive muscle relaxation and/or sensory awareness retraining depending on personal needs.
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