What can you expect from talk therapy?
Whether you are experiencing depression, anxiety, struggling with a breakup or you’re feeling stuck and want to find a way forward, talk therapy can be life-changing.
In its simplest terms, talk therapy is the practice of exploring thoughts, feelings and behaviours with a trained professional. As a process, this can help you to develop a deeper understanding of what you are experiencing, identify patterns and make changes.
Talk therapy is centred around the development of an honest and trusting relationship between you and your therapist. It often feels free-flowing rather than pre-planned, with you determining what is explored in session rather than your therapist.
Talk therapy
In my own work, I practice an integrative approach, which is a form of talk therapy and my personal approach is simple, warm and relational in its outlook.
For many clients, talking without constraint in sessions - with a professional trained to create a non-judgmental, confidential and supportive space - can provide a depth of relief in a way that talking with friends and family often cannot.
As professional practitioners, we are trained to experience you without assumptions and prejudice and don’t bring our own agenda into the relationship. One of our key roles in session is to help you let go of any conditioning you may have developed over a lifetime of being encouraged to behave, think or be a certain way to feel safe, loved or accepted.
What might happen in sessions?
As we begin our work together, I’m likely to suggest we spend some time exploring what’s brought you to therapy and what your goals of therapy might be. As we shape and refine these goals together I will encourage you to consider positive goals [sometimes called approach goals] rather than negative ones [sometimes called avoidance goals]. An example of a goal with a positive focus might be ‘I want to make more friends’ whereas a goal with a negative focus might be ‘I want to feel less lonely’. Not only do approach goals promote a more forgiving and optimistic outlook, research* also shows that if we focus on achieving positive approach goals rather than negative avoidance goals then our results are likely to better.
In weekly sessions, we may work together to:
Process previous experiences and understand ways in which they may be impacting how you think, feel or react to situations today
Gain a better understanding of your emotions and how to successfully regulate them
Identify unhelpful coping mechanisms, safety behaviours or habits that may be holding you back
Explore and understand insecurities, life stressors and anxieties, their triggers and find healthy ways to manage their impact and intensity
If you have more questions about therapy in general, or wish to talk about whether you might find sessions beneficial, please contact me and I’ll be happy to call you for a chat. I offer face to face sessions in the Birmingham area and online or telephone sessions for those living further afield.
*Elliot A.J., & Church, M.A., [2002]. Client articulated avoidance goals in the therapy context. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49 [2], 243-54
