Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy involves talking with a trained mental health professional in order to resolve problems or conflicts, change behaviors or gain insight into feelings like stress, sadness, loss, fear or anger. Psychotherapy is a working relationship between the client and the therapist, which involves discussing, analyzing, discovering, reflecting, experiencing and healing. There are many different types of techniques that may be used by a therapist including, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalysis, humanistic therapy, creative therapy, Gestalt therapy, insight oriented or psychodynamic therapy and many others. Therapy may be conducted on an individual basis with a couple, family or a group of individuals. Thought the techniques and the modes of therapy are diverse, the underlying goals may be to gain understanding of one's life patterns both past and present, to obtain self knowledge and understanding and to address areas of distress or dissatisfaction in one's life. One of the most important aspects of psychotherapy is that the therapist provides a setting of safety, confidentiality and acceptance allowing clients to explore their issues in depth and to find new ways of approaching them. People seek out psychotherapy for many different reasons as it provides a confidential setting in which emotional difficulties can be addressed. Some of the more common areas addressed in therapy are depression, grief, anxiety, phobias, panic, trauma, abuse, marital conflict, sexual dysfunction, addictions, life transitions and family conflicts.

Psychotherapy can be short term and last anywhere between 3-6 months or longer term lasting for years. Psychotherapy looks at the whole individual and at the many factors, which contribute to an individual's uniqueness. The amount of time spent in therapy is therefore dependent as much on the client as on the scope of the issues being addressed.

Psychoanalysis is a more intensive treatment approach intended to delve into the subconscious processes that underlie all of our feelings and behaviors. A psychoanalyst uses dreams, free association and an intense relationship to actualize this goal. There is something to be said about classical psychoanalysis as the patient meets with the therapist 3-4 times a week and the intensity of the relationship is built. Such pressure brings out the crippling personality traits, as there is no room for the traits to hide when they are bombarded every few days. Hence the traits are dealt with. Yet psychoanalysis was and is for the elite or well to do - they can afford it. Despite the fact that analysis is open to all, the general population cannot afford it, nor has the time to indulge in it. Psychotherapy is more affordable and requires weekly meetings only. However, psychotherapy lacks the intensity and the pressure that must be created in order to effectuate change.

The solution or the perfect compromise is to combine psychotherapy with hypnosis and allow for the intensity of psychoanalysis without the expense and the time obligation. Hypnotherapy is the road to the unconscious and allows the client to address those traits in the personality that may otherwise be hidden or not addressed as quickly. Hypnosis creates the intensity for the specific traits or issues to rush into consciousness and provide the material that needs to be worked on. Now there is an opportunity for understanding and transformation. Hypnotherapy is effective, it's analytical, and it is short term.