In Praise of Talking Therapy

As a provider of talking therapy, or counselling as many of us call it, I felt excited when I came across this great article in praise of talking therapy. The article, 11 Intriguing Reasons To Give Talk Therapy A Try, explains clearly how and why talking therapy can help with many difficulties. In particular it is in praise of the analytical approach that psychodynamic counselling offers. This is my main approach, although I have also trained in using CBT and solution focused skills as well.

The introduction of the article says: “Many of us grew up under the impression that internal stuff shouldn’t be discussed – it should be swept under the rug. This is perhaps the single worst thing you can do for yourself. Stamping down your emotions and not working through your psychological issues – especially serious pain or abuse in the past – can culminate in a host of problems”.

The article explains that: “A huge benefit of talk therapy is that its effects are long-lasting. This is because you’re not only working through stuff, but you’re also developing the tools to help you deal with future stuff. Psychodynamic treatment is durable over the years”.

The article also talks about the longer term benefits of talking therapy, going on to say: “The positive gains continue and grow over time as though some of the work gets further consolidated after therapy stops. We continue to use the reflective lens in thinking about, talking about and expressing feelings about our inner lives after we end treatment. The whole talking-with-the-therapist process gets internalized so that self-therapy picks up where the actual therapy leaves off”.

If you are interested in reading about how counselling can help, then I recommend reading this.

My only disappointment with this article is the image it uses. Like most of the people I know in the counselling community, I do not look so formal as the man in the image and like others I do not use a couch. Here is an image of one of the counselling rooms I use; no couch, just comfy chairs.

One of the rooms I work from

In Praise of Talking Therapy: the counselling room

 

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