Why come to psychotherapy?

Through our lives, we experience a variety of life situations: cycles of relative ease and well-being; times of great stress and difficulty. The cause of our difficulties may be known – a failed or failing relationship, bereavement, one’s work, – but the cause may also be unknown.

Our difficulties may be experienced as frustrations, agitation, pain, fear, lack of confidence, flatness, depression – and overall a reduced quality of enjoyment from life.

Conditioned reactions and unconscious influences pervade our interactions. We can fall into habitual ways of seeing, thinking and doing, losing touch with what is deepest in ourselves and the full extent of our possibilities. If we are not careful, these clouded moments can stretch out and become our lives.

Although most clients enter into a therapeutic relationship for reasons of difficulty, for some the motivation is simply the desire to grow in awareness, to become more true to oneself, to reawaken more spontaneity and aliveness.

The general aim of psychotherapy/counselling is to help us live in a more satisfying and resourceful way. To help identify blocks that interfere with healthy living and to strengthen the individual to overcome them.

Psychotherapy isn’t a magic solution, a cure-all for life’s problems, but it can offer invaluable support, through understanding and insight, and is an opportunity to see more clearly how we relate to our experience.

Integration and healing come from insight into the ways in which we hold onto our suffering; and by connecting more fully and deeply within ourselves, we create the possibility to move with greater creativity and flexibility in our lives.

“Well-being is not just about physical and mental stability, but is seen at a core level to be a truly expansive state of awareness, compassion, joy and peace.” Karuna Institute.