Individual Therapy
Individual therapy is at the heart of all the work that psychotherapists do. Whether working in groups, families, or couples, with children, adolescents, or adults. All effective therapists listen carefully to their clients-Listening to the actual words, listening from the heart, listening to what is being said or not said, listening to feelings that are present but often not said, listening to what is needed, wanted and longed for. If we have not been carefully listened to lately we might be surprised at how relieved we feel having been fully heard and seen. It is one of our most basic human needs, the core of what we want most from other being.
And in this going back and forth between two people something occurs to us that was hidden before. and understanding arises. More listening happens, and more responding, both from the therapist, but also from ourselves. And now that we know there will be listening on the other side, we can start to listen to ourselves more and more often. We start to hear things we were afraid to hear before. And we can talk about our fears as well as our new understanding.
Now that the reciprocity has been established, trust can grow, trust in the therapist, in the process, in ourselves, and our ability to make changes. An aliveness emerges in the therapy hour, and we find that inquiring deeply in ourselves can be rewarding, fascinating, even enjoyable.
Some of us are afraid that if we look deeply in ourselves we will find something bad there, or at best something empty. But