Why psychotherapy?
There are many reasons why psychotherapy can be beneficial.
And many good excuses for not using it: “I’m too busy”, “I just need to get on with it”, “it won’t change my current situation”, “I am not very good at talking about things”…
The reality is that not all our difficulties get resolved “naturally”. Sometimes, we need to actively, consciously work on them. And we need the presence, support and guidance of somebody else – questions that life throws at us can be overwhelming to an individual alone.
Psychotherapy creates the time and space where we tackle issues that we would otherwise too easily avoid. Like medicine helps heals the wounds of the body, psychotherapy can help heal the less obvious, but often as painful, wounds of our heart and soul.
Clients often want to address some of the following issues:
- Anxiety
- Bereavement
- Depression and mood-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Illness – for patients and their carers
- Personality – unhelpful patterns of being
- Relationship issues
- Relocation, expatriation, cultural adaptation, cross-cultural relationships
- Self-confidence and self-esteem
- Spirituality
- Stress
- Work related issues
What is Jungian analysis?
Jungian analysis is the form of psychotherapy developed by Carl Gustav Jung.
C.G. Jung is well known for his ideas about the psychological meaning of dreams, about personality types (which inspired the Myers-Briggs Personality Type) and about the collective unconscious.
The psyche works as a whole. What is missing in our conscious life is often activated in our unconscious. As Jungian analysts, we listen to the symbolic language of the unconscious, expressed in dreams, images, emotions and bodily sensations. And we then work with clients to reconcile their conscious attitude with the demands of their unconscious, and of their whole personality.
The soul can become a reality again only when each of us has the courage to take it as the first reality in our own lives, to stand for it and not just ‘believe’ in it.
James Hillman