…and what it is not.
Psychotherapy (used interchangeably with counseling) is a collaborative process of self-exploration toward healing. Psychotherapy is not something that will be done TO you, FOR you, or imposed upon you. Psychotherapy is a conversation, and you will involve yourself in the process. Psychotherapy is not magic, and it is not mind reading. The bottom line is that YOU are the expert on YOU. No one knows you better than you know yourself.
Sarah has education, training and experience in helping people, so she has some tools and strategies to suggest and teach. You direct the treatment. You bring yourself, to talk about your thoughts and feelings, and Sarah will help you sort them out.
Why do people seek counseling/psychotherapy?
You’ve been feeling sad for some time, and can’t shake it.
You’re easily annoyed with people around you, and you don’t want to be so short-tempered (or, you may be wondering why people are so annoying).
Your loved ones are telling you there’s something wrong; they say you are not the same as you used to be. “You’re too sensitive,” or “so angry all the time,” or mopey.
You are terribly lonely, despite the fact that there are people all around you.
You feel broken, like everyone else seems to know something you never learned. You can’t find the partner you just knew you would have by now.
The relationship you are in does not feel the way you had expected it would. The career you worked toward for so long, just doesn’t do it for you anymore.
You’ve entered a new chapter in your life, and the people around you – if there are any — aren’t helpful, or aren’t helpful enough. You need objective support for where you are, and what you’re doing.
You’re behaving in ways YOU don’t like, but can’t stop.
Psychotherapy is a very private, and a very individual process, often about changing something deeply personal. Psychotherapy can be something different for every person who seeks it out. There are people who come for therapy and all they need is a little information. Once they get that, they leave, feeling they learned what they came for.
Other people may come to therapy looking for permission. Maybe they thought what they were feeling, or thinking, was wrong, bad, even sinful. They find permission to have their thoughts or feelings, and they move on.
There are people who feel their pain or sorrow very deeply. They wonder why their feelings are so intense. For these people, therapy may need to go deeper. They may need to explore how they got where they are, how they can un-learn what’s not working in their lives, and how then to learn anew.
There are also people who feel value in having regular time with someone they feel will listen, and who will offer wise counsel in their lives, on an ongoing basis. Their friends and family members may be supportive, but not objective. Maybe they have been in therapy before. Maybe they found a previous therapy, or a previous therapist, stale. They want to try something different, someone different.