Psychotherapy

Because you will be putting a good deal of time, money, and energy into therapy, you should choose a therapist carefully. We believe you should feel comfortable with the therapist you choose, and hopeful about the therapy. When you feel this way, therapy is more likely to be very helpful to you.

Psychotherapy at HarrisHoward

Most people who seek therapy do so because of they feel emotionally distressed in some way. Talking through these feelings may help, but in order to really change it is helpful to explore and start to change the thoughts and beliefs which underpin the feelings. When an event happens to us we must decide what the event means before we can respond to it emotionally. For example if a good friend promises to ring at a certain time and you wait in for the call but they don’t ring then your feelings will be largely dependent on how you explain the situation to yourself. If you think "Something bad has happened – he has been in an accident", you will feel anxious and upset. If you think, "he doesn’t care about me – he takes me for granted" you may feel sad or depressed. However, if you think "he’s got a lot on his mind and he has forgotten, I’ll ring him later". Then you may feel fairly neutral. Often, these thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, others and the world can become distorted, leading to emotional distress. In therapy we can look at your thoughts and beliefs, how they affect your life, and attempt to change them in a positive direction. Therapy based on these ideas is known as ‘cognitive behavioural therapy’ or CBT.

By the end of the second or third session, your therapist will tell you how they see your case at this point and you will have an opportunity to discuss how therapy should proceed. Therapy is a partnership.  You define the problem areas to be worked on; we use some special knowledge to help you make the changes you want to make. Psychotherapy is not like visiting a medical doctor. It requires your very active involvement. It requires your best efforts to change thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. For example, we want you to tell us about important experiences, what they mean to you, and what strong feelings are involved. This is one of the ways you are an active partner in therapy.

The Psychotherapy Plan

We will plan our work together. In our treatment plan we will list the areas to work on, our goals, the methods we will use, the time and money commitments we will make, and some other things.  From time to time, we will look together at our progress and goals. If we think we need to, we can then change our treatment plan, its goals, and its methods.

An important part of your therapy will be practicing new skills that you will learn in our sessions. We will ask you to practice outside our meetings, and we will work together to set up homework assignments for you. We might ask you to do exercises, to keep records, and perhaps to do other tasks to deepen your learning. You will probably have to work on relationships in your life and make long-term efforts to get the best results. These are important parts of personal change. Change will sometimes be easy and quick, but more often it will be slow and frustrating, and you will need to keep trying. There are no instant, painless cures and no "magic pills." However, you can learn new ways of looking at your problems that will be very helpful for changing your feelings and reactions. Most of our patients see us once a week for 3 to 4 months.

Learn more about our services

Please feel free to contact us to discuss Psychotherapy. Alternatively, read more about HarrisHoward psychological therapies, or read an overview of our psychology services.