THERAPY APPROACHES

 

 

PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

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Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (PP), also known as insight oriented, or depth psychology, is the oldest of the modern therapies. PP encourages exploration and discussion of the full range of our emotions. PP helps us to describe and put words to feelings, including contradictory feelings, feelings that are troubling or threatening, and feelings that we may not initially be able to recognise or acknowledge. Psychodynamic therapists work to identify and explore recurring themes and patterns in peoples’ thoughts, feelings, self-concept, relationships, and life experiences. Related to the identification of recurring themes and patterns is the recognition that past experience, especially early experiences of attachment figures, affects our relation to, and experience of, the present. PP places heavy emphasis on peoples’ relationships and interpersonal experiences. Psychodynamic therapists explore early experiences, the relation between past and present, and the ways in which the past tends to “live on” in the present. The focus is not on the past for its own sake, but rather on how the past sheds light on current psychological difficulties. The goal is to help patients free themselves from the bonds of past experience in order to live more fully in the present.

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SCHEMA THERAPY

 

Schema Therapy is an innovative psychotherapy developed to treat personality disorders (particularly Borderline Personality Disorder) and other enduring psychological difficulties such as chronic depression, anxiety and interpersonal problems, which have not improved with other forms of therapy. Schema therapy aims to assist clients to address and modify long-standing unhelpful patterns in thinking, feeling and behaving and seeks to explore the historical origins of these patterns.

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