Psychotherapy is a process of exposure; a confidential* means of learning. In this way, client and therapist work together to discover what situations, events, and relationships in your life’s history are leaving you with distressing feelings or dysfunctional methods for dealing with your world. You work toward attaining fresh perspectives and powerful tools to conceptualize your experiences, beliefs and thoughts. Through these means, your actions become based less on defenses and hurt and more on understanding and choice. Your child, partner or family might take part in these changes, which are typical of psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy looks at the client and the many multifaceted components that have played a role in making every person distinctive. Psychotherapy assumes that there are aspects of our lives that we are not fully conscious of which can act as a barrier, limiting our ability to function healthfully. Without active exploration both in session and at home, hidden assumptions, expectations, and memories of the past end up generating and perpetuating destructive patterns.
Depending on the client and situation, a psychotherapist may take on several roles including those of educator, facilitator, confidant and conflict resolution advocate. All of these roles serve to aid in the achievement of a more effective and assimilated self.
Along with achieving personal insight, the psychotherapy process allows us to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of who we are, which can help us come to terms with our issues and responses to people and things. Ultimately, our energy no longer needs to be directed towards maintaining defenses, allowing us to refocus on establishing positive interactions in the realms of love, work and play.
When successful, psychotherapy creates a synthesis of intellectual knowledge and emotional understanding. Because self-exploration can often be challenging and painful, therapy often takes more than a few sessions. Fifty minutes in nature, each session provides the opportunity to become comfortable with yourself and your ways of being. This non-judgmental process slowly becomes integrated into your internal experience and lasts long after the journey of therapy has concluded.
* Though confidentiality is paramount to a successful working relationship, psychotherapists are bound by some limits including harm to self or others, child/elder abuse etc. Allison encourages all current and potential clients to ask about these limits as questions or concerns arise.