What is psychotherapy?

Maybe it’s easier if I tell you what psychotherapy is not.  It’s not an episode of Dr. Phil where I give you tough talk and give you specific actions I think you should take. That kind of approach is more akin to life coaching, or even what you get when you talk to friends and family.

I practice something called psychodynamic therapy, which is a type of talk therapy. As the client, you would bring in whatever feels big or important to you. It can be something from your current life, your childhood, two weeks ago, or something coming up. The direction is up to you, but I as the therapist would ask questions to clarify things or learn more.

Using what you bring in, we begin to explore the patterns that you experience in your life. Perhaps the patterns relate to how you interact with others, manage your emotions, or deal with addictions. The goal for us is to examine the patterns and try to create new ones. Therapist and client is a new relationship where a new type of relationship can be created.

Your friends and family may listen to you, but they might have an interest in getting you to take a certain action or do something. Your therapist should not have that conflict of interest. They should come from a non-judgmental place that can validate your experience and provide you comfort that your story will be heard.

That’s therapy. A clean slate to start building a new story for yourself.