The relationship with your self sets the tone for every other relationship you have.
Jane Travis
Personal growth and empowerment are key factors in successful psychotherapy, and individual therapy is a great pathway to get there. Creating an environment for one to develop a stronger sense of self is a personal goal of mine as a therapist. As one’s sense of self increase, other aspects of one’s life fall into place.
Some of the benefits of therapy include:
- Relief from depression
- Decrease in stress and anxiety
- Better relationships
- Stronger, more appropriate boundary setting
- Asking and receiving needs previously unacknowledged
Working from an emotionally focused persepctive, we look at unresolved feelings and negative relating skills that we developed in childhood or past relatonships. Often we recognize ways in which our pain is repeated in present day relationships and activities–sometimes we are unaware of how we repeat with others what was learned long ago. Some people shut down emotions altogether, while others act out their emotions in destructive ways. Usually we blame the other people in our lives for the repetitive pain. No matter where we are, however, the emotion or lack of emotion is ours, and only we can stop the repetition. This pain pattern is the leading cause of poor choices and dysfunctional relationships or withdrawal from healthy relating.
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross