It’s about relating. It’s about interacting, about creating an authentic connection, about understanding — and learning. If a therapist basically sits there, listens and then unloads advice at the end, he or she is not doing their job. Therapy is a process of collaboration. It’s a journey that patient and therapist embark upon together. In addition, the insights a patient takes to heart along the way can become the arc towards a more satisfying life.
Although talking may be the medium for developing a therapeutic understanding, there’s much more going on. In the process, we’re discovering the unconscious psychology that shapes the feelings, thoughts, actions, and reactions with which you deal with the world around you. That’s very important because a lot of what we all do happens without our being any more aware of it than we are of our native language when we speak. It’s in there, deep.
Which can be good. If you had to consciously think about nouns, verbs, adjectives, their meanings and sentence positions every time you spoke, you wouldn’t be able to communicate all that well. Nor do we remember learning it, or walking. So too with the way we all relate to the world. We base a lot of our outlook on what we learned from those around us when we were very young. It drives and defines us, whether we want it to or not.
Understanding your unconscious psychology so you can work through it is just part of the process. Much of what we all learned is good and useful; some decidedly not. We often feel we suffer because of that part. Also, we often think that’s the way life is.
In reality, it’s not. Moreover, it doesn’t have to be that way. Although we all are animated by our unconscious mind, we do have a conscious one. Once you see that, you can begin working through your feelings, thoughts, words and consequential actions, so you can achieve more desirable and satisfying outcomes.
It turns out you have much more control over all of those things than you think you do. So you can live your life with less pain and more gain if you put your mind to it.
It’s not too early, and never too late to lead a satisfying life. So let’s get to work.
As a licensed mental health professional, trained psychotherapist and experienced therapist, I can help you learn effective tools and skills for obstacles that life throws your way. Contact me to start the process of freeing yourself and starting living the life you want – I would love to help.
