Psychotherapy is a process of trying to understand yourself better, in the presence of a witness and guide (the psychotherapist). By examining your conscious and unconscious thoughts and feelings, we may uncover underlying needs, expectations, motivations, unhealed wounds, patterns of thinking or behaving, assumptions, belief systems, and ways of relating to yourself and other people.
Through this process, your current symptoms may be alleviated. You may heal past hurts and get closer to your inner essence or truth. Utilising self-reflection and self-examination you may clarify your purpose, values, what matters most to you and what makes life meaningful. This helps you to make better choices, and live in a way that feels more authentic. By becoming more self-aware and attuned to your environment, you might notice changes to your mood, self-concept, relationships and find ways to live that is more satisfying and appropriate to who you are now, and what you want for yourself moving forward. As the late, great Quincy Jones said, ‘to get where you’re going, you need to know where you’ve come from’.
Psychotherapy is a creative and collaborative process, which can be challenging at times. My job is to get as close as I can to understanding your experience, to seeing the world through your eyes. Often change doesn’t happen overnight, but it can and does happen.