AN INTRODUCTION TO THERAPY
WHAT IS THERAPY?
There are many different types of therapy, based on various theories of personality and psychology. At the most basic level, we can think of therapy as being a method or a tool for self exploration, undertaken with the aim of producing some positive change in outlook or behaviour. The client speaks freely, in guaranteed safety and confidentiality. The therapist is receptive and empathetic; they listen actively and without judgement, ask questions, and reflect their impressions for the client's consideration. As the process continues, we may notice that certain ideas and themes start to recur. Exploring these further, we begin to understand how they were formed by your experiences, and how they effect you today. From here, we may look at how we can overcome the self limiting effects of these experiences, and how we can give them a sense and significance that makes them personally meaningful, or meaningful in a new way. If therapy is successful, our difficulties and our suffering can become empowering rather than limiting.
HOW DO WE START?
We would begin by talking about what it is that has brought you to therapy, what you'd like to get from it, and how getting it will effect your daily life, work, or relationships. We would do this during your free consultation, and in our first full session. We would agree on some kind of goal or outcome that we can work towards. We would refer back to this goal every few sessions to see how we're doing. This process is known as "contracting"; it helps to focus our attention and keep our work structured and coherent over time. Having a goal in mind also means that we can keep track of our progress in terms which are concrete, observable, and relevant to your wider life. Of course, therapy is a process of change, and your goals may well change as we go on. You may not know exactly what it is you want from therapy straight away. That's absolutely fine, in fact it's very common. It's in the nature of these things that they often take some time to really form, and we can adapt our process as they become gradually more clear. In any case, our discussion will give us some clues about where to begin looking, and we'll start from there in our next session.
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WHAT GOES ON IN A THERAPY SESSION?
I work in an active, engaged way. I will ask you questions about your history, your experiences, important figures in your life, and how it feels for you to hear and answer them. I will ask you about how you experience our work, your feelings here and now, in the room with me, or what it might feel like to experiment with new behaviours and responses. All these questions are designed help you notice and understand your own internal workings. The idea behind this is that over time, beliefs you have about yourself and others, and your ways of being in the world and relating to others will begin to show themselves in the therapy room. By developing self awareness, we can begin to understand these beliefs and patterns, trace their history, challenge them, and imagine how they might be different.
With that said, there's probably no such thing as a "typical session". The feel and direction of sessions is likely to change as the process develops. Some will feel lighter, and more positive, while others may feel difficult, and emotionally demanding. Sometimes words will come easily and naturally, other times you may find yourself not knowing what to say. This is all to be expected as a natural part of the process, and it's all useful. Change and understanding must develop over time, and the road toward them is often indirect and unpredictable. This is because the process of constructing meaning in our lives is complex and continuous throughout life. Your sense of self emerges from this unfathomably complex interactive process. It is not fixed, but continually and subtly shifting. As it is a process of self exploration, psychotherapy reflects this unfixed, shifting nature.
IS THERE ANY SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THAT THERAPY WORKS?
Yes. Neuroscientists have demonstrated that the structure of the brain is not fixed in place as previously thought. Instead, it is "plastic", meaning that it changes continually throughout life in response to its environment. In this way, our experiences actually produce structural changes in our brains, altering its activity. Remarkably, every single new experience that you have produces some change in the neural wiring in your brain! Experiences, relationships, especially early relationships, and our construction of meaning from them are extremely influential in this process.
On the basis of these observations, many scientists now believe that subjective experience and meaning making play a far greater role in shaping who we are than previously imagined. Clinical evidence from the study of PTSD strengthens this view. There is now strong evidence that placing past events into a personally meaningful story promotes psychological healing, which in turn produces observable structural changes in the brain.
In short, Meaning matters. Neuronal activity, brain structure, environment, relationships and subjective meaning making are all constantly influencing and shaping each other. You are this continual process of interaction. It is these principles, firmly grounded in current science, that we aim to utilise in psychotherapy.