Psychotherapy & Counselling

Psychotherapy may involve working with a wide range of presenting issues which may present themselves either in the form of symptoms, difficulties in relationships, or poor sense of self and poor outlook on life. However, rather than focusing directly on the distress itself, the focus of the treatment tends to be on the underlying causes. The roots are rarely immediately available to awareness, so the role of psychotherapy is to bring them into awareness and work through them.

At the level of symptoms, one may be presenting with anxiety, depression, a sense of loneliness or aloneness, feelings of despair and hopelessness, meaninglessness, or purposeless, various forms of addiction, self-harm, self-sabotage and self-defeat, issues with anger and aggression, obsessive-compulsive features, traits of eating disorders, excessive or lack of sexual interest, etc.

Poor sense of self and issues with self-esteem, sometimes in the form of fluctuations, are often part of one’s distress. This may range from self-criticism to an experience of internal emptiness or confusion and may be accompanied by a sense of disorientation, lack of initiative to commit to meaningful life goals, or a sense of feeling lost.

Relationship difficulties are often the result of one’s internal world. These may range from dependency and co-dependency, difficulties with authority and avoidance of conflict, fears of abandonment and rejection, losing oneself in relationships, clinging, rejecting or feeling rejected, reoccurring patterns of abusive and manipulative relationships, a pattern of continuously failed relationships, issues with commitment, or relationships that are unfulfilling and where one feels nonexistent or unseen.

Origins of these difficulties can often be found in one’s adverse experiences in early life, such as developmental or childhood trauma or other adverse childhood experiences. Such experiences are not always related to overt trauma and may stem from more subtle adverse experiences, including neglect and emotional trauma.

The focus of the treatment will normally be on the emotional wounds, often inflicted in the past, however, wounds that may cause immense distress in one’s present life.