An overview of method analysis in relation to client to society and client to practitioner behaviorment.

What is Psychotherapy?

There is a lot of confusion around the terms Psychotherapy or Counselling. They can quickly conjure up images of some one trying to get inside your head, trying to ‘catch you out’, or simply some one telling you where you have gone wrong in your life and giving you advice on how to make things better. All of these, of course are wrong. One of the reasons for all of this confusion is that the counselling relationship is a privileged one. By that, I mean the content of the session is confidential and the client is divulging their inner most secrets and trusting that they will stay inside the room. Thus, there is seen to be a lot of secrecy around what actually happens in the process.

The clearest way to define the process of counselling is to say what it is not. It is not about giving advice. When people are in a state of crises and they come to see a counsellor one of the first things they may say is ‘Tell me what to do’. The counsellor cannot tell a person what to do, as they do not know what is right for their client. However, the counsellor is trained to help the client through the emotional distress they are experiencing and into a scene where people have choices-With awareness comes choices. And by making choices change happens. Even if a person comes into awareness about the way they have been living their lives and decides not to change-this is still a choice for the client-because now they are consciously aware of the choice they are making.

 All of this does not mean that the counsellor sits back and lets the client do all of the work. The counsellor is constantly working with the client by challenging their beliefs about themselves, mirroring back their feelings and staying with the client’s process. This means that the therapist does not jump ahead and have their own agenda of where the client should be in their process. We go where the client needs to go and we work with what is presented in the here and now of the session. At this stage it is important to mention that in my experience this can be a slow process. There are no ‘quick fixes’ to emotional distress, as this can quickly become a ‘band aid’ and covers up temporarily the real source of the emotional pain. If this happens, the symptoms of the dis-ease such as depression, anxiety etc. will almost certainly come back in a few weeks, months or years with a vengeance. In this demanding world of ‘quick fixes’ and books with titles such as ‘Heal your life in 7 days’ or ‘I can make you thin’ the reality is very much different. It can take many, many years for people to realise that they are stuck in a rut, suffering from depression, in an abusive relationship etc. Or they might not even know why they have come for counselling, they may just have a sense that something is not quiet right in their lives. Equally it takes time for a counsellor to work with a client, to build a relationship where there is trust, non-judgement and understanding. Only if the client feels that all of these elements are present does the real work begin.

* Attracta Gill is a Psychotherapist and Counsellor. She can be contacted on 00353 087 2382978