Psychotherapy
Talk… Still the Best Medicine!
No matter how many different kinds of therapy come along or how advanced different treatment modalities become, what remains after all is the connection between psychotherapist and patient, therapist and client, counselor and counselee. In fact, beyond any kind of treatment modality, what has been found to be most healing in a psychotherapy experience has been the treatment relationship. It is through this relationship that healing occurs, not because this or that technique that is used, but because a good treatment relationship breaks through much of the isolation that is at the core of our suffering….
A good treatment relationship is one that helps you talk openly, and one in which you can be listened to in a unique way – one that perhaps, encourages you to talk like never before. And it is this way of talking that brings relief, finds new insights, heals the past, creates new hopes and possibilities, and finds purpose when there has been none at times.
The old psychoanalytic mandate “say everything” comes to mind as these lines become more clear on the page… As we are able to say everything, we can learn to accept ourselves more fully and authentically. We also learn to isolate less and to build bridges between ourselves and the world around us. Bridges that are an essential part of bringing relief to our suffering.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
Although there are many aspects and approaches to psychoanalysis, one thing remains: The understanding that as people, there are parts of ourselves that we keep hidden from our awareness. Psychoanalytic or psychodynamic psychotherapy is a type of psychotherapy through which you as a patient have the opportunity to continually increase your awareness of your wishes and motivations with the hope of leading a more full and satisfying life. Based on the thought and writings of Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis has evolved into a theory of mind, a way of research and a specific way of practicing psychotherapy.
As human beings, we are regularly alternating between multiple possibilities in our life and psychotherapy can help us resolve these conflicts and tolerate our most challenging emotions.
Existential-Phenomenology and Psychotherapy
Existential-Phenomenology calls us to listen to our unique way of being as human beings, as ‘beings-in-the-world.” We are like no other being, since we are aware of our mortality, our freedom, our desire for relationship and our responsibility to find or make meaning in our life. As a “being-in-the-world,” each one of us is ultimately responsible for how we live out our life day after day – ultimately “response-able.”
We are called to grapple with our humanness, the limits and possibilities we encounter. Our existence and our mortality – Ultimately, it is this awareness that calls us to greater authenticity.
Copyright © 2010 – Felix F. Pizzi, LMHC, CCMHC. All rights reserved.