The therapeutic process
I see therapy as a process of change, as a path to wellbeing. And while you walk this path you learn about yourself and your experiences, using and discovering resources that may not know you had. This path leads to wiser choices in your behaviour, both at an individual level and when interacting with others.
Overcoming a crisis is like undoing a knot. If you try and do it with your eyes closed, without understanding the challenge, it’s a lot more difficult. But if you can see how the knot has formed, you stand a better chance of undoing it. That’s why it’s important to work on self-awareness and understand the problem at hand during therapy. In this way patients often discover the solution to a problem by themselves.
The first visit is when we start to establish a relationship based on trust that will be an essential part of our therapeutic partnership. It is when you can talk about the circumstances that have lead you to asking for help and it is when I start to find out about you and your situation. It is also where we establish objectives. In subsequent visits, the aim is to know more about what you are having to deal with, and this might involve complementary tests. This all helps me to put together a therapeutic plan that will help us to achieve our objectives. During this process, we will follow a path that leads, step by step, to the changes that are needed to progress towards a positive outcome. The path, that will be chosen between us, will be full of emotions and surprises, and my job is to give you all the support that you need.
ANXIETY AND STRESS
Generalised anxiety, panic attacks, stress at work, trauma, obsessions, phobias.
Anxiety is a natural reaction when confronted with a threatening situation. That’s why when we feel distressed because of a known or subconscious threat, anxiety is normally the first thing we feel. Anxiety can express itself as fear, pressure on the chest, a knot in the stomach, difficulty sleeping, irritability … The main problem isn’t the anxiety itself or its symptoms, it’s the cause of the anxiety, and the threat that lies behind it.
GRIEF AND LOSS
Grieving over death, separation or the loss of something important.
The loss of a loved one due to death or separation can be one of the worst experiences we have in life. It means the end of a situation that brought us joy, that we felt at home with and understood to be ours. The process of grieving is like crossing a bridge over the abyss between the situation we had with the person now absent and a new situation in which we have to reassess who we are and what we want.
Sometimes grief is triggered by the loss of a situation rather than a person. The loss of a job, going to live in another place, the loss of one’s health, or the loss of anything else that is important to us.
DEPRESSIONS
Sadness, lack of motivation, depression.
Depression can be a reaction to external circumstances that set of a personal crisis or be caused by something that was already within us. Its symptoms include sadness, anxiety, apathy, a loss of self-esteem, a loss of hope or motivation, sleeping difficulties …
Therapy can help us to find the path that leads out of this crisis and rediscover our emotional balance.
PERSONALITY PROBLEMS
Impulsiveness, emotional dependence, difficulty in relating well to others.
These are problems that show themselves in our behaviour towards others and towards ourselves. They are often the result of insecurities, low self-esteem, our personality, etc. In cases like this it is essential to understand why we behave in a certain way and find ways to deal with difficult situations in the most efficient manner.
PROBLEMS WITH SELF-ESTEEM
Low self-esteem, insecurity, shyness.
There are many causes behind low esteem: the way you were brought up and the relationships you experienced as a child, problems in your personal or family relationships, received messages, your personal beliefs … Understanding yourself and finding ways to strengthen your sense of self-worth are the main paths towards overcoming these obstacles.
UNIDENTIFIED PROBLEMS
Life insatisfaction, problems in relationships, adjusting difficulties.
Sometimes we simply don’t know what is happening, but we feel sad or anxious. Something tells you that what you are feeling isn’t normal. Therapy is a path to wellbeing and can help you find the path back to the emotional balance you have lost.
EMDR THERAPY
Our brain has natural capacity for processing our daily experiences and dealing with them in a healthy way. But we sometimes go through traumatic experiences that stop this process from working properly, making it hard for us to recover from them. This leads to psychological discomfort and physical symptoms. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) help us to reprocess the memories of a traumatic event that are trapped in our neural networks and help us to store them in a healthier manner. EMDR is highly recommended as a way to work on the emotional problems caused by traumatic events like abuse, accidents and death, as well as on difficult past experiences, phobias, low self-esteem and difficult relationship.