How does psychotherapy work?

When we hear about therapy many of us may think about it as only talking. Yet, there’s more to therapy than just talking, particularly when you’re taking part in psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy is a form of therapy that helps you work through particular patterns that occur in your life. It can look at how behaviours we created, and why our pasts played a big part in shaping this. In psychotherapy, you’re not going to always solely talk about your childhood, unless you want to. In fact psychotherapists will only focus on your childhood intently if you deem it is needed. When a psychotherapist refers to the past it can be any time from before you sit down to your therapy session and how it then leads the here and now in the therapy conversation.

There are particular fields of psychotherapy which have forms of diagnostics to help work out why past patterns form. Transactional Analysis can look into how parents and caregivers of any form may have led to us learning certain behavioural responses to events and even communication styles. Knowing these can help people communicate their needs more easily, so they can work towards being more authentic and autonomous.

Psychosexual therapy may look at the somatic works at play alongside any memories or concerns around sexuality. Unlike popular belief, it is not about how your parents have influenced your sex life! A lot of psychosexual work is focused on the here and now and has more goal-setting than some other forms of psychotherapy.

Integrative psychotherapy allows a therapist to use all the skills they form over the years to tailor therapy more to the individual client. Traditional psychotherapy can make some feel the therapy is all about the therapist being in charge, however, integrative can allow the client more room to help direct the type of therapy they feel they need.

Developmental psychotherapy can help focus on how relationships develop and why sometimes it can be harder to connect with someone during particular stages of that connection. With this form of psychotherapy, it can be positive to see that many people go through stages in relationships where it can feel a bit of going one step forward and two steps back.

Social justice has only just become a big focus in psychotherapy and used to be only associated with person centred therapy. Now a wide range of psychotherapists also follow a person-centred approach to help their clients. This can be particularly helpful when supporting clients through social struggles, such as work, discrimination, family diversity, and more.

In psychotherapy sessions, you may find it hard to form a conversation and some clients worry about this. Silence in sessions isn’t something to worry about, and is simply one way you process things. If it feels needed then it’s important for the psychotherapy process.

The different ways we communicate in psychotherapy are welcomed and can help you understand yourself more and the patterns of communication or behaviour you are wishing to address.

What is psychotherapy for?

Generally, psychotherapy is a form of ongoing therapy. Clients can arrive with particular goals, however there are many who simply just wish to develop a deeper understanding of themselves.

Psychotherapy isn’t just for those who feel as if they are in crisis or distress, although it can be very helpful in supporting those who come to therapy in those situations. Sometimes psychotherapy can be a great way of understanding habits such as OCD and addiction. Psychotherapy is not a form of therapy that promotes conversion or abstinence but rather the process of why a habit has become important in your life. This can help many regain control in difficult situations.

Psychotherapy is often offered weekly or fortnightly. It can help many people gain independence in their lives that they didn’t have before.

At times some clients find it helpful to have set activities for when they’re not in session. Activities focused on psychotherapy can help some clients, but others find that just attending sessions is better for them. When a psychotherapist offers activities, they aren’t compulsory, even if you agree to try and fit them in before the next session, don’t worry if you were unable to do them – everyone gets busy from time to time!