Just wondered if anyone has or who is currently receiving psychotherapy counselling would like to share their thoughts on any aspect of it??
Ive found it really helpful, as has really broken down my personality into bits so i can see whats what and where and how certain aspects have developed into what i am at present.
I seemed to have this wierd thing of feeling like i have to explain myself for anything and everything i do, even when i go to counselling, but yet i know that my counsellor is just there to be a guiding support in all of this, and to help me see why.
Im sure some people may find they go through a few counsellors b4 they find one that suits them. Or maybe some people just dont find this kind of therapy suits them at all. I suppose its all about who you are, where you've come from, and your make-up as a person.
My counselling has touched on all aspects of myself that ive found hard to cope with which isnt what i initially went there for.
But i suppose its all connected in one way or another.
Does anyone out there feel that psychotherapy is not a good thing to have and if so, let us know why.
I think long term depression is a dis-ease which needs unfolding through some form of conversing therapy, rather than just hands on. But then again, who am i to say that, because, some people may have been helped without such a form!
Anyway,
let me know your thought on this subject, kind people!
SYm:eek:
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
I'd recommend psychotherapy over psychiatry any day! It does depend on the practitioner's approach - gestalt, person-centred, transpersonal (big fan of that last one)... but at least there is more chance of being listened to and helped to find your own way, rather than the 'fit in this box' approach of psychiatry, IMHO.
I had a brief encounter with psychotherapy some years ago when I first confronted the 'void within'. The woman worked on my coping mechanisms and helped me sort out what was going in in my head. Since then, I've had a bit of counselling when things got too 'head-muddled'.
I think long term depression is a dis-ease which needs unfolding through some form of conversing therapy, rather than just hands on. But then again, who am i to say that, because, some people may have been helped without such a form!
It does depend on whether your depression is clinical-based or not, but I'd tend to agree with you there. Tablets never really worked for me because I always needed to talk things out. No sense in dampening down the effects without getting to the roots, which counselling has done for me. Once you understand the roots, you can go forward, so although other aspects are coming up for you, Sunyvemoon, you will find that they are connected and have to be untangled before you can get rid of them.
That's my thoughts, anyway.
Moonfeather
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
Heya sunyvemoon,
Interesting topic! 🙂
I haven't had councelling myself and I guess I've been fortunate in that, even though I know I've had issues, I've been able to take a turning point in my life when I started doing Reiki and more recently Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
I think that councelling is one of those things that works for some and not for others. In some respects the councelling sessions can help the client to come to a sort of realisation about things that have happened in their lives and assist them in understanding why they are feeling the way they do; and from that realisation the client may decide that enough is enough and take whatever action they can to do something about it and bring their life back into order. In another respect though councelling may cause only temporary relief for the client, having talked about things and got things out in the open, but then the realisation of all the feeling they have and not actually knowing what they can do about them can cause further problems in their life and further depression with a feeling of not being able to handle it all and continually going for more councelling to 'try' and help.
This is why I am happy that I have come across EFT. Whenever I have an issue, or one crops up from the past, although there may be some initial dis-ease from it, I can take time out and say "hang on, let me do some EFT for this". And the majority of the time these issues will just disappear; not the actual memories, but the emotional upset that those memories were causing.
Reiki and meditation have also helped to calm my mind and energise the body as well as giving me that new direction in life.
I'm happy that you have found councelling works for you and wish you well for the future.
Love and Reiki Hugs
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
interesting.... counselling helps you figure out what to do next in my experience. if they are professional, then they dont just open up a jar of worms and then let you deal with from there. if you go to a counsellor and figure out you have all these unprocessed feelings and dont know what to do about them then thats where you can continue counselling. And if its hard for someone to deal with stuff then its good that they do continue to see someone about it rather than end up maybe losing their life because of not feeling supported. depending on your problem/s & situation will depend on how long u seek counselling for. professional counsellors have structure from the beginning of your therapy to the end. And towards the end of therapy is where the therapist creates closure proceedures. if you decide to go to therapy only for a few sessions then the therapist has to work out whats best for you in that short space of time. If its hard for the client to give up the therapy then there's reasons why which need sorting out also.
Concerning emotional memories and upset.....sometimes the emotional upset (thatyou may not want to expose) may need exposing and releasing, so EfT may actually be stunting a natural healing process of the body & mind?
this is getting very interesting, thanx peepsxxxxxxxxxxxxx[8D]
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
Like I said, I haven't been for councelling, so I'm not that up on the details of how it's done, but that was based on my own understanding and from other people's experiences.
As for EFT, it doesn't supress the emotions, but free's you of them. In severe emotional cases, the client may become upset, even to the extent that they can't do the EFT for themselves, but with the use of EFT these emotions can be quickly and effectively cleared. EFT practitioners will try and do most cases as tearlessly as possible, but in some cases things just come out and have to be dealt with there and then.
Love and Reiki Hugs
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
If there are lots of unshed tears then does the EFT release the depth of it so the tears no longer there?
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
Ive also had hypnotherapy which seems to have helped initially but ive found unless icarry on with the techniques it can get overshadowed again by the problems. I think some people, as i was, are under the impression that hypnotherapy cleans it all up there and then. but i suppose its like anything, you cant get anywhere without going somewhere!
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
ORIGINAL: sunyvemoon
If there are lots of unshed tears then does the EFT release the depth of it so the tears no longer there?
Good use of EFT will, through talking to the client which I guess is a form of councelling in itself, get down to the root cause behind the issue the person is experiencing. Each issue may be made up of one or more aspects and each of these will be tackled individually. e.g. A person may feel upset every time they think of what their ex-partner did, and then by treating that with EFT, they no longer feel upset but feel anger towards that person, and then again another treatment of EFT will deal with that. Sometimes a single treatment may get the root aspect and 'wipe-out' the rest of the aspects, other times there may only be one aspect, or sometimes the issue is made of several aspects that all need treating.
In a sense, yes, EFT will release the depth of the issue so the tears are no longer there. A lot of people describe the issue or causal event, after EFT, as being like watching a movie; they can remember it in detail, they can see that what happened was wrong, they can remember that they used to be upset by it, but now it doesn't cause them any adverse emotions. Sometimes the client will feel an "empty feeling" after treatment because they are so used to experiencing the emotional upset and now it's just not there. This is something they can either get used to over a short period of time or, if it bothers them, they can use EFT to work on the empty feeling.
Love and Reiki Hugs
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
the process of layers sounds similar to homeopathy.
Sometimes i have empty feeling after therapy. The thing i find with the psychotherapy is that it unravels all your feelings slowly but surely. And even though form one week to the next your inner feelings may change, there is this underlying feeling of progress and healing.
It is like any therapy in terms of freeing one emotion, and another popping up to deal with, but counselling can take alot longer i think, (in terms of talking about it)as its hard to get to the root of a problem with so many layers unfolding- especially when alot of people find it so hard to be able to begin to speak about them to another person. If you are going to go to therapy for a substantial amount of time, then ou obviously build a foundation with the therapist, which eventually makes it easier to talk about the nitty gritty rather than skirting around the reall issues or feelings that are going on. but it can take a long time to get to this point.
Some people dont have a problem airing their feelings, and others keep a hold of every little feeling that comes along until there are years and years of suppressed forgotten hurts, which causes the person to lose touch with themselves and reality.
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
ORIGINAL: sunyvemoon
the process of layers sounds similar to homeopathy.
Indeed. I have been treating a homeopath, and she relates the two processes as similar.
Some people dont have a problem airing their feelings, and others keep a hold of every little feeling that comes along until there are years and years of suppressed forgotten hurts, which causes the person to lose touch with themselves and reality.
Yes, we all have different ways of trying to cope with our emotions. It is possible however, with EFT, to treat a client without the client talking about their issue at all. They can just relate to is as "this problem" if they like, as long as during the process the saying of "this problem" relates to the problem in their own mind; the therapist need never know what the issues were. 😉
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
thats kinda cool.
I personally find it therapeutic to verbalise things whther it be by talking, or writing.
also find other ways very helpful too. Kinda person that can use all sorts of methods to aid in healing.
xx
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
Absolutely. No reason why you shouldn't try all sorts of things and find what works best for you.
Love and Reiki Hugs
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
I wonder if EFT will help my food cravings? probably.
I remember coming across this method a couple or three years ago and remember thinking it was strange how when i was little i i used to try and separate myslef from the feeling of pain by saying to myself that the pain is just a process thats going on in the body which causes physical reactions and so its only my mind saying its 'painful' and that if i just let the process happen i may not feel the pain as pain, but just something thats there physically, but not a feeling.
Oh, its difficult to explain this, but i know what im getting at!!!
Plus i was reading books quite a few years ago relating to how you can send information to your body to do its job literally by talking to it, and the message gets through. also visualisation work aswell.
Its funny how it all works on some level.
Its all energy i suppose aint it!
xxxx
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
Yes it's all energy and IMO that's the key.
EFT will most definitely help with food cravings if you want to give it a try.
You can download the EFT manual for free from
I have EFT information available myself so feel free to contact me with any questions etc. as I'm always happy to help where I can.
Love and Reiki Hugs
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
thanx
[sm=fit.gif] this is how food makes me feel inside. When i dont eat, i feel okay, when i eat and feel full, i become very out of sorts.
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
dont seem to have a stable routine with it. havent had for years, which is to the detriment of my body, bless it.
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
psychotherapy over psychiatry
Moonfeather, I would say that they are two very different things. One deals with one's "soul" and the other with the brain...
Sunyvemoon, you may be intereste din looking at a book called "Food and Transformation: Imagery and Symbolism of Eating" by Eve Jackson (she is a Jungian psychonalyst). It is not about eating disorders, but more about what food means and represents. It is published by Inner City Books. ISBN: 0919123759.
Psychotherpy/psychonalayisis is not everybody's cup of tea, but if you want to go deep to the root of the issues and understand them, I think that it's a fantastic way. Not easy all the time, but very "enlightning". As you said, it may take some time to find the right therapist for you, but the search is worth it. At least that's my opinion.
Artemis
RE: psychotherapy...anyone received this kind of therapy??
I will check this book out as it sounds like a good thing to look into...thanx Artemis