therapy
Therapy has played a very crucial role in my life and my mental health. It has been my refuge and my schooling. It has comforted, confronted and taught me about myself and people.
My experience of therapy has three distinct periods:
phase one
The first period was as a child in school, around grade six, around the time I learned to meditate, I sought out the school social worker and I remember telling her that I needed her to help me to cope with life and being in school. We spent the first part of our time together talking about the challenges I was encountering. Later, she tried to teach me various techniques to develop confidence and set boundaries. She tried using some body-centred techniques in order to teach me to be more assertive and to learn how to say no. Some of these techniques were rather unfortunate decisions on her part, like when she lay on top of me so that I would have to scream at her to get off me and assert myself. This was not a very good idea. But as weird as that was, our time together did help me to cope more effectively with my life at home and school.
phase two
The second period was in my early twenties. This was when the OCD was particularly pronounced and weird. I thought that I was becoming schizophrenic because of the thoughts I was having and the behaviours I had to perform, like the purchasing of the records I talk about in my OCD Weirdness section of my OCD page.
This period of therapy was the most intense, demanding and life-changing. I was in therapy for about three years with a very skilled therapist who helped me to face the problems in my family and my own dysfunction. This was a time of a deep delving into my childhood and the dynamics of my family relationships. It was often painful and scary but a very necessary part of my journey. Unfortunately, my therapist saw my homosexuality as my searching for my father. This was a time when I was remaking myself and so decided that this might be correct and for a period of time, I tried to live a heterosexual life. (The woman who became my partner during that period is still a dear friend of mine who has been in a long-term lesbian relationship for over 15 years). It never occurred to me to suggest to that therapist that perhaps her interest in men might also be her search for her father. Ah well, live and learn...
phase three
The third phase was really a preparation for dealing with medication. It was during that time that I had to face the fact that the depression and anxiety did not seem to reduce, no matter what issues were investigated. This spanned the time from my late thirties and into my early forties and included sessions with a counsellor, then a therapist and finally a psychiatrist.
We ran the gamut from possible early childhood sexual abuse to the possibility of genetic predisposition to mental illness as well as discussion the good and bad potentials of taking medication.
Since that time, I have used short-term therapy to deal with specific stresses in my life so that I can create strategies to cope more effectively with them.
some examples of types of therapy
Psychotherapy:
Cognitive/behavioural therapy:
Gestalt therapy:
Hypnotherapy:
Neuro-linguistic programming:
shopping around
While no counsellor is perfect, certain elements need to be present in order for me to accept a therapist:
1) They need to engender a feeling of safety and non-judgement so that I feel I can be myself without being criticized for what I may say.
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OCD
Depression
The Reasons Why
Therapy
Medication
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While this website deals with issues and information about mental health please be advised that the author is not a mental health or medical professional. The information herein is in no way intended to be used as a substitute for professional guidance and the author cannot be held responsible for any choices you may make based upon the information contained in this website.
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The treatment of mental and emotional disorders, problems or challenges through the use of psychological techniques designed to encourage the communication of conflicts and insight into problems, with the goal being relief of symptoms, changes in behavior leading to improved social and vocational functioning, and personality growth.
A direct form of psychotherapy based on the interpretation of situations (cognitive structure of experiences) that determine how an individual feels and behaves. It is based on the premise that cognition (the process of acquiring knowledge and forming beliefs / perceptions) is a primary determinant of
mood and behaviour. Cognitive therapy uses behavioural and short term analytical techniques
to identify and correct negative thinking that is at the root of the behaviour or thinking for a number of problems, i.e. behaviour changes through examining the belief system behind the individual's feelings.
A form of psychotherapy, built on the experiential ideal of "here and now," and relationships with others and the world. Drawing on the ideas of humanistic psychology, the school of Gestalt therapy was co-founded by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s-1950s. It is related to but not identical to Gestalt psychology and the Gestalt psychology-based Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy of Hans-Juergen Walter.
The use of hypnosis for the exploration, treatment and alleviation of somatic, psychosomatic and psychological conditions. Use of trance states to investigate and deal with issues, including the use of hypnosis to recall past repressed abuse, change behavioural patterns and reduce stress.
The application of principles focussed on the relationship between mind and language (linguistic, both verbal and non-verbal). The organizing of the interaction between mind and language to affect an individual's mind, body and behaviour.
2) They need to prove themselves to be trustworthy. This takes time because trust is earned.
3) They need to be able to learn my language and not interpret what I am saying into their world but rather, to get the "landscape" of what my world is like and what it means to me.
4) At this point in my life, they need to respect the idea of having a biological component to mental health issues and how stress can impact that.
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