For Individuals - Psychotherapy in English

What is psychotherapy?

Word psychotherapy comes from Greek and stands for process of healing soul. It is a method of personal growth or treatment of psychological distress based on individual relationship with psychotherapist. It is often described as talk therapy, and as psychotherapy goes on, a trusting, nonjudgmental alliance is being built between client and therapist in order to engage in dialogue on problematic issues and ways how to fix them.

Recovery is made by getting-to-know-one process and by better understanding of one-self, one’s reactions to different life events or exploring one’s relational patterns. To cut a long story short psychotherapy is a deconstruction of an old way of being or thinking in favor of developing new, healthier thought or behavior habits that enable a more meaningful and fulfilling life.

Who should consider psychotherapy?

Adults, that face an overwhelming distress in their private or professional life.

Couples and spouses who meet relational/marital difficulties and wish to surmount them.

Parents that are affected by the challenges of parenthood and they wish to understand better their children and how parents’ behavior influence their kids.

Liders that encounter personal difficulties with their employees, superiors, colleagues either suffer from chronic fatigue, work overload, perfectionism or lack of work-life balance.

How long should psychotherapy take?

Psychotherapy is not a lifelong commitment. Depending on client’s needs it might be a long-term or short-term process. Long-term work is focused on developing more profound self-understanding (one’s emotions, thoughts, behavior) what enables sustainable improvement in client’s life. As there is no time limit for long-term psychotherapy client would decide together with therapist whether goals set at the begging of the therapy have been achieved. In short-term process therapy ends when the problem that brought client to therapist (such as i.e. relationship hardships, death of loved one, important decision to be made, coping with serious illness) has been solved.

Each session lasts from 45 to 50 minutes. Usually they take place once a week at given hour.

What should I expect while contuining psychotherapy?

The main outcome of psychotherapy is liberation from the distress that impairs the quality of client’s life. In the long run people would cope better with difficulties that might arise in future and usually they find satisfaction in their life or work. Most frequent results that we observe are:
discovery of proper balance between private and professional life
better management of life energy
becoming responsibile for one’s life instead of constant seeking for somebody to put blame on
overcoming either private or professional difficulties
restoring healthy self-esteem

What are the different kinds of psychotherapy that we use?

In general we integrate various psychotherapeutic approaches trying to respond effectively to client’s changing needs. Below we describe in few words leading therapeutic approaches in our Centre:

Psychodynamic approach assumes the existence of unconscious mind. Psychodynamically-oriented therapists try to unravel unconscious processes (thoughts, motivations, hidden likes and dislikes, forgotten memories) that lay behind problematic situations and which are normally unavailable to introspection. Psychotherapist may frequently ask about various periods of one’s life, mainly infancy and childhood considering them as the source of answers for actual client’s problems. Furthermore counselor put stress on relationships that emerge in client’s life.

Systematic approach, focuses on family and relationships between its members. This assumption is based on idea that family forms a unique system of unconscious loyalties, beliefs, entanglements, and mutual, often transgenerational indebtedness. Systematically-oriented therapists investigate influence of family heritage on client and on the way one functions individually, in couples or in-between other people. Discovering how client maintain important relationships opens up an opportunity of remodeling them into healthier and more satisfactory attachment patterns.

Open Dialogue Approach, pioneered in Finnish Western Lapland in the 90ties as a model for treatment of psychosis where all important decisions (understanding symptoms, hospitalization, need for medicaments) are being discussed in safe and cooperative atmosphere. Two or three therapist co-moderate joint meeting with client’s social network (mostly client’s family or those with whom client feel secure) focusing on dialogue between client and his relatives on client’s extraordinary sensations or uttered complex statements. Twice or three times per session therapists share with clients their thoughts, feelings and observations through Reflecting Team. Tolerance of uncertainty, renunciation of knowing-better stance allow professionals to follow family dialogues in the search for new meanings and ways of overcoming psychotic crisis.

What do I need for first consultation?

Onset of psychotherapy is always preceded by a preliminary consultation(s). This first one or two sessions lasts ca. 50 minutes and they aim at identifying client’s problem, one’s social and professional background as well as explorating how current distress affects everyday life. Once therapist has collected a summary of personal history a dialogue on treatment plan and contract comes next. Therapist’s and individual’s responsabilities are being outlined. By the end of this proces client should gain a new understanding of experienced difficulties and hopefully how he or she might overcome them.

First Consultation