Individual psychotherapy is one of the hallmarks of dedicated self-improvement and emotional wellness. Therapeutic goals are generated and used as benchmarks of a weekly journey to self-realization. Personal obstacles and challenges are identified as the patient becomes equipped with an invaluable arsenal of adaptive coping strategies. Emotional and often unconscious roadblocks are identified and challenged in a safe, empathic, supportive, and confidential environment. Effective new behavioral strategies replace old ineffective, and often unconscious, habits. Often, the personal status quo ends where individual psychotherapy begins.
Aging in a culture that glorifies eternal youth can present emotional challenges. Stereotypes and myths abound depicting the aging phase of life as a period to be suffered through. But the second half can be more rewarding than the first. Geropsychotherapy offers an older adult emotional and physical fortification to meet the personal challenges brought by aging. Older adults are living longer than ever and emerging into a landscape that offers unforeseen challenges. The geropsychotherapist is a necessary partner, along with a geriatrician, for an aging adult to successfully adapt to challenging and evolving physical and emotional needs. Geropsychotherapy can equip the older adult with new skills and attitudes to meet the demands of a changing, and aging, world.
Why would men have their own therapeutic approach (aren’t they included in “Individual Psychotherapy”)? Because men and women are different in myriad ways; women, in general, are more comfortable expressing their emotions. One of the most common findings in psychiatric research is that depression is a “women’s illness”. That may be because women are more apt to venture into psychotherapy than men. Left to their own devices, many men are reticent to try psychotherapy. Some who have approached it in the past were scared away by the traditional pathological approach; this is the philosophy by which many therapists were trained: focus on the negative. Gender Aware Therapy emphasizes a man’s strengths, taking a positive approach. For psychotherapy to be effective, men must be comfortable in the journey.
The teenage years can be among the most challenging of the human life span. Problem-solving and skills enhancement can provide an adolescent with tools and strategies to assist them in exploring heretofore daunting horizons. Often, new and rewarding opportunities can be explored via dramatic improvement in communication and listening skills. Self-esteem can be strengthened through greater facility with interpersonal relationships. Familial bonds can be strengthened as long-held obstacles are explored and challenged. Adolescent psychotherapy affords a thoughtful young person a broader vision of an exciting new world.
Relationships can be challenging. Couples therapy allows a duo to move past fairy tales and myths. Couples learn how to successfully communicate their needs and desires to each other, rather than rely on ineffective mind-reading and assuming. In a fast-paced and demanding culture, relationships are often taken for granted, opening the way for resentment and decay to form a stronghold. Couples therapy allows the airing of grievances, and emotional pain, in a safe and supportive environment. Dedicated couples experience emotional healing and learn new ways of strengthening their bond to stand the test of time.
The only ideal families exist on television. Most families have their strengths and weaknesses. Unquestioned, unwritten rules were developed through previous generations. A family’s structure usually isn’t considered until it becomes dysfunctional. Family therapy provides an opportunity to expose long-held communication patterns and behavioral maladies that impact the wellbeing of the family unit. Familial roles can be more clearly defined, boundaries delineated, and communication patterns enhanced.
Group therapy is a therapeutic opportunity unlike any other. Experiencing a cohesive group therapeutic environment offers an individual the ability to receive unbiased feedback and impressions that can become unexpected, invaluable fodder for personal growth. Group therapy becomes something of a behavioral laboratory, allowing members to observe and experience human behavior in a way that fosters individual enhancement. A therapy group also can propose recapitulation of the family of origin experience that facilitates emotional healing.