The process
Assessment
The first session is an opportunity for us to meet and get a feel for each other. It's your time to share all your thoughts and issues that brought you to therapy. I will ask a lot of questions during this session in order to gather enough information to grasp and conceptulise how we should move forward. During this first session we examine the underlying cause to your problems and we start to explore ways of how we could approach these. At the end of the first session I make a summary of my assessment and this often leads to clients understanding the cause of their problem as well as their symptoms.
PlaNning
The second time we meet, we'll begin on delving into the issue(s) that initially brought you to therapy. I am transparent in everything I do and will inform you of all the steps we'll be taking along this path. At the end of this second session, I will summarize the information I have gathered and how I perceived your story and the problem(s) you are experiencing. This is a way to check whether I am hearing you correctly and understanding you in a way you need to be understood. Hopefully you will find the summaries confirming and supportive and see that they add a structure to what often feels like chaotic thought patterns in the beginning.
After we have summarized and framed the issue, we make a plan TOGETHER on how we move forward.
Individual therapy
Session three is usually when we begin looking at the actual thoughts, feelings, behaviours and/or situation which you feel are creating the problem. We make links between the past and present in order to understand why certain behaviors are being repeated and I help you challenge unhelpful patterns. My role is to guide you in sharing your story, in a way which helps you open up new ways of thinking and relating to the problem. I follow your pace and I stay supportive to your needs throughout the process.
individual needs
How long your therapeutic path lasts depends on your needs. Some might only need a few sessions and others feel a need to stay in therapy for years. Therapy is an individual journey where you decide how far you choose to go. Many find the process to be a huge relief and comfort.
Relational therapy
I strongly believe that;
1: All healthy and longlasting relationships are based on congruence and empathy.
2: All human beings have an inner potential to self-actualize.
Couples Therapy
Being in a relationship with another means mirroring ourselves in the other. I often talk about this mirroring process and how it affects us in different ways depending on our own family history and current mental health. Each couple is different and often faces a unique set of circumstances. Some couples come into couples therapy to deal with specific difficulties early in their relationship, while others search out couples therapy when the relationship has turned negative and the concerns are more entrenched. Finally, some seek couples therapy in the process of ending their relationship.
During couples therapy, I will also look for individual concerns. It is important to be aware of specific individual difficulties that have become part of the current relational or marriage difficulties. We often see relationships that are struggling where one or sometimes even both individuals also are suffering from depression or anxiety. Similarly with outside stressors. Difficulties in careers, living situations, culturally dependent stressors, and so on, can cause significant stress on the couple as well. In couples therapy it is vital to understand and treat all these difficulties, concurrently.
congruence and empathy
Congruence is the complience between the actual self and the ideal self. Usually when people seek therapy their actual image or perception of themselves disagrees with the person they would like to be. Through empathic understanding I help you recognise this incongruence and guide you towards a state of congruence through better self awareness and self acceptance.
self-actualization
It is the motivation to realize ones maximum potential and possibilities. Every person comes with their own individual set of needs. During therapy I help you identify these needs in order to know which ones are unmet and which ones you need to focus more on. We all hold potential within to self actualize, with the right motivation and guidance it becomes possible.