Psychotherapy

Positive psychological changes

The term psychotherapy embraces a wide range of approaches and therapies, but there are two main groups of therapies – Analytical and Cognitive & Behavioural.

Analytical Psychotherapy

These approaches focus on ‘change from within’. They set out to understand the underlying causes of problems, by exploring particular life experiences that may have been significant.

Included in this group are therapies such as psychoanalysis, Gestalt therapy, and psychodynamic counselling.

Changes are brought about through increased insight that help people become more able to feel and express their emotions. They may re-evaluate perspectives of themselves and past experiences which can lead to increased confidence and peace of mind.

Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapy

Here the focus is on ‘change from the outside’ – evolving strategies to change thoughts and behaviours that have become problematic and entrenched habits.

Included in this group are CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) and Suggestion Hypnotherapy.

Simply uncovering the root cause of a problem does not always lead to positive change. This is because our thoughts and behaviour patterns have become strong habits, reinforced over many years. These therapies can help reinforce the new patterns to ensure that the positive therapeutic changes are more fixed and long-lasting.

‘Combination’ approach

For many years these two groups were kept separate, and were practised by different therapists. In recent years there has been a growing recognition that an element of both aspects can be helpful.

Enid undertakes a ‘combination’ approach. There is a brief period of analysing possible underlying causes of problems. This gives you the space to explore and work through any problems and issues that may have been troubling you.

The work will then focus on changes in the present. Enid’s belief is that it is not so much what happens that affects us, but how we interpret that event - what has become part of our belief system as a result of that experience that is still affecting us today. That is the main focus of the ’combination approach – looking to see how insights about causes can help us change how we feel and think TODAY.