‘Therapy’ means different things to different people. Most people don’t seek out a specific type of therapy, and the differences between psychotherapy, counselling, psychoanalysis, CBT and others tend to be less of a concern than just speaking to someone who can help. At my clinic in South Dublin, I am rarely asked what type of therapy I practice. The question most people have is ‘can you help me?’ 

Depression? Anxiety? Addiction? Other?

Work is a struggle, relationships are a struggle. You read blogs about anxiety and depression, and you think “I’m depressed!” That’s it! I need treatment for depression. Fix my depression and all other things in my life will resolve themselves. The next question then tends to be - ‘who will help fix my depression?’ When people ask this question the focus tends to be on the label - ‘depression’ or ‘anxiety’ or ‘addiction’ or what have you. But the most important part of this question is not the label but what comes before it - my. ‘My depression’; ‘my anxiety’; ‘my addiction’. 

My Mental Health

What do you really need from therapy? Well, for a start, you don’t need something else to worry about. You don’t need exercises, homework and scheduled tasks in which you enter into battle with your own mind, attempting to subjugate thoughts and feelings that in reality serve a very important function in your mental life. 

Deciding what’s best for you

You need time to come to understand your own subjectivity, motivations and reasons for feeling the way that you do. You are not the same as anyone else so a standardised approach to mental health will at best put a plaster over something, but will do little to address what lies beneath your suffering. You need time to work it out and make a decision on what changes need to be made.

Psychotherapy and long lasting change

There is nothing more transformative and long lasting than fundamentally coming to an understanding of our own position in life and making the change that we know is right for us. And the reason we know it is right for us is because we have done the work and developed understanding. It is this understanding that can be gained through therapy. 

What do I want from therapy?

What people tend to think they want from therapy is more - more energy, more drive, more motivation, more instruction, more, more, more. Whereas the reality is that in most cases what we need is less. We need to slow down and create some space in which to think and reflect. We rarely have the time or the opportunity to step back and examine our lives and ask the questions ‘what do I want? Is this really the life that I desire? How do I live a life that makes me happy?’ 

Mental Health Help

By engaging in a therapy that privileges your unique singular nature, that allows space for reflection and exploration of the causes that lie behind our suffering, by slowing down, then we find the ‘help’ that we seek.

If you would like to speak to someone about psychotherapy or counselling, please contact us.