Individual Therapy
There are many psychological difficulties that could confront anyone of us over the course of our lives. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5) identifies and describes most of them. This reference manual for mental health professionals is hundreds of pages long.
Some disorders listed in the DSM 5 are more familiar such as addiction, anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, personality disorders, OCD, panic attacks, phobias, PTSD, and schizophrenia. Others you may never even have heard of before, like trichotillomania, paraphilias, or factitious disorder.
With individual counselling, I often use a three-stage model developed by Clara Hill. Research has shown this model to be effective. Stage one is identifying exactly what your concerns, problems, and challenges are (person-centered therapy). Therapy here consists of attending and listening, questions and probes, restatements and reflections, approval and reassurance, self-disclosure and silence.
Insight into the underlying reasons for your thoughts and behaviors (psychoanalytic and interpersonal therapy) comes next. At this juncture, therapy is about becoming aware of your personal defenses and incongruities and finding better internal models to see or reflect the world around you.
Finally, comes the action stage—developing the needed skills that will actually give you the better life you want (MiCBT, solution-focused therapy, clinical hypnosis). Here we look at negative pattern interruption, learnable sequences, mindfulness, positive expectancy, and discovering your inner resources.
Researchers have conclusively shown that psychotherapy is helpful. One group of researchers found therapy clients are on the average 80 percent healthier than those who do not receive psychological assistance. Individual counselling may be the next step for you to move forward in your life.
