Psychotherapy and counselling are often referred to as talking therapies. Psychotherapy is a term for a variety of treatment techniques that aim to help a person identify and change troubling emotions, thoughts, and behaviour.
Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy explores the historic script that we have written for ourselves, our “life script” each of us in childhood writes a life story, psychotherapy helps you to develop your awareness of this script, how it impacts upon your life and how you can work towards changing that unconscious story. This can enable you to find new ways of relating, greater intimacy, improved friendships, greater authenticity and a new way of truly knowing yourself.
This therapeutic work takes place in a clear and mutually agreed contract, so everyone knows the goals for therapy and how they may be achieved.
Psychotherapy is one form of ‘talking therapy’ and tends to be a longer term process, allowing you to identify and explore patterns of behaviour.
There can be a considerable overlap between psychotherapy and counselling; the latter tends to be shorter term and more about immediate issues or situations that may be causing you distress. Part of the counselling process is likely to include working on specific skills to help resolve a problem.
Some people approach therapy knowing exactly what they want to address, many more have a sense that something isn’t right – perhaps they have feelings of anxiety or depression and want to explore more deeply. There is no need to decide at once which sort of therapy is best for you; in our free, initial meeting, we can discuss the options and move into the sort of talking therapy that best suits you at that time.