PSYCHOTHERAPY:
A Safe Place
Resolving Difficulties in a Secure Place. In today's world, stress, sadness, and overwhelming feelings are increasingly on the rise. A person can search for answers but not quite know where to turn to. Often friends and family mean well but don't offer suggestions that help make things better. A therapist provides a confidential space to talk about anything; and offers professional training and experience to help you make important changes in your life. Having a place to talk safely and openly can be the first step.
New Understanding
Psychotherapy can help you by giving you better insight into your self, how your head works. It can not only understand how problems have developed but can provide strategies for change and growth. The main approaches to therapy either help you think psychologically or change how you think and behave. I feel both are important. Psychotherapy can be very helpful not just in "fixing your problem" but in also increasing the quality of a person's life.
Psychotherapy can help with a number of issues, including depression/sadness, the winter blues, stress and anxiety, trauma/PTSD, relationship difficulties, bad habits, weight management, smoking cessation, and pain management.
Generative Work
Psychotherapy is not just to solve problems or eradicate symptoms. It is also effective for life improvement, reaching your potential and finding more meaning in life. Situations that arise in our daily routine can hold a person back from reaching goals. Creative blocks, such as performance anxiety, can get in the way of enhancement of abilities and talents. Enhancement of ability by increasing a state of openness can help with business, sports, and other activities. Often, when people fix the obvious problems in life, they are still left with existential issues that need to be addressed if they are goin gto be successful and happy.
Here is an explanation from the American Psychiatric Association
What is Psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is a way to help people with a broad variety of mental illnesses and emotional difficulties. Psychotherapy can help eliminate or control troubling symptoms so a person can function better and can increase well-being and healing.
Problems helped by psychotherapy include difficulties in coping with daily life; the impact of trauma, medical illness or loss, like the death of a loved one; and specific mental disorders, like depression or anxiety. There are several different types of psychotherapy and some types may work better with certain problems or issues. Psychotherapy may be used in combination with medication or other therapies.
Therapy Sessions
Therapy may be conducted in an individual, family, couple, or group setting, and can help both children and adults. Sessions are typically held once a week for about 30 to 50. Both patient and therapist need to be actively involved in psychotherapy. The trust and relationship between a person and his/her therapist is essential to working together effectively and benefiting from psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy can be short-term (a few sessions), dealing with immediate issues, or long-term (months or years), dealing with longstanding and complex issues. The goals of treatment and arrangements for how often and how long to meet are planned jointly by the patient and therapist.
Confidentiality is a basic requirement of psychotherapy. Also, although patients share personal feelings and thoughts, intimate physical contact with a therapist is never appropriate, acceptable, or useful.
Psychotherapy and Medication
Psychotherapy is often used in combination with medication to treat mental health conditions. In some circumstances medication may be clearly useful and in others psychotherapy may be the best option. For many people combined medication and psychotherapy treatment is better than either alone. Healthy lifestyle improvements, such as good nutrition, regular exercise and adequate sleep, can be important in supporting recovery and overall wellness.
Does Psychotherapy Work?
Research shows that most people who receive psychotherapy experience symptom relief and are better able to function in their lives. About 75 percent of people who enter psychotherapy show some benefit from it. 1 Psychotherapy has been shown to improve emotions and behaviors and to be linked with positive changes in the brain and body. The benefits also include fewer sick days, less disability, fewer medical problems, and increased work satisfaction.
With the use of brain imaging techniques researchers have been able to see changes in the brain after a person has undergone psychotherapy. Numerous studies have identified brain changes in people with mental illness (including depression, panic disorder, PTSD and other conditions) as a result of undergoing psychotherapy. In most cases the brain changes resulting from psychotherapy were similar to changes resulting from medication. 2
To help get the most out of psychotherapy, approach the therapy as a collaborative effort, be open and honest, and follow your agreed upon plan for treatment. Follow through with any assignments between sessions, such as writing in a journal or practicing what you’ve talked about.