Therapy, or more fully psychotherapy, is a psychological service that is provided to individuals, couples, families, or other groups of people by a specifically trained and licensed health professional. Clinical psychologists, in particular, are specifically trained to provide psychotherapy services (amongst a broad range of other psychological services).

As a therapeutic tool, psychotherapy makes use of the content, processes, and dynamics that emerge during assessment and therapeutic consultations in order to identify, assess, manage, and alleviate personal difficulties, or psychological distress and/or psychiatric illness.

There are literally hundreds of different types of psychotherapies, emanating from different theoretical schools. Some of the more well-known theoretical schools include the cognitive behavioural, existential, humanistic, psychoanalytic, and psychodynamic schools, whilst well-known psychotherapies include CBT, logotherapy, psychoanalysis, and brief or long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy.

The most useful and beneficial psychotherapies tend to be informed by both theory and practice that have been, and continue to be, developed by clinical practice and empirical research based on the principles of 'evidence-based practice' and 'practice-based evidence'.

Why Psychotherapy

The motivation for seeking psychotherapy remains intimately personal to each individual. Some clients and patients wish to meaningfully explore their own personal development; others may desire a better understanding of personal relationship dynamics or difficulties; some seek relief from current painful emotional and personal distress; and others seek the treatment of more demanding psychological and psychiatric challenges or illnesses.

Irrespective of the reasons for seeking psychotherapy, the principal objective of psychotherapy is the improvement of one's own sense of well-being and the further development of personal functioning across different life areas (such as relationships, family and work). On a practical level, this is achieved by developing existing and new coping strategies and personal resources that can be used to prevent, resolve, and better manage personal and mental health well-being.

Practice Orientation and Professional Interests

I practice psychotherapy primarily from an integrative psychodynamic approach. This means that I place an emphasis on developing a strong and purposeful working relationship with my clients and patients so that together we may discover and come to understand how thoughts, feelings, and behaviours contribute towards the development and maintenance of personal difficulties, psychological distress or psychiatric illness.

My professional interests include psychotherapeutic practices that assist clients or patients who are experiencing or suffering from/with:

• Anxiety and stress
• Mood difficulties such as depression, irritability, anger, or persistent mood changes
• Relationship difficulties within personal, family, or workplace contexts
• Trauma, loss, bereavement and grief
• Transitional or life-change challenges, including parenthood, separation and mid-life challenges
• Professional or career-related challenges
• Personal meaning and existential questioning

Although I practice from an integrated psychodynamic framework, in certain circumstances, I augment my practice with other non-dynamic psychotherapies. This decision is based on clinical best practice after considering the presenting circumstances and the individual client's or patient's personal psychotherapeutic goals and fit.

More About Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Psychodynamic psychotherapy builds on the principal processes involved in resolving, reducing or managing distressful thoughts, feelings and behaviours by facilitating a more generous, in-depth personal therapeutic inquiry.

As a particular psychotherapeutic process, psychodynamic psychotherapy is specifically directed towards further developing an individual's internal psychological resources in order to enhance their capacity to better prevent, cope with, and manage life (or other) stressors that may otherwise trigger, maintain or exacerbate personal difficulties, psychological distress or psychiatric illness.

In broad terms, this requires a focus not only on the presenting symptoms or cluster of symptoms (such as depression) that a client or patient may be suffering from, but also the reasons as to why such symptoms or cluster of symptoms may have arisen in the first place, what sustains these symptoms, what makes them worse, and what helps reduce or alleviate these symptoms. This more in-depth inquiry facilitates a process that contributes to the development of personal awareness and reflectivity – important personal resources that may be used to explore thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in order to resolve and/or manage presenting personal challenges, or psychological distress, or psychiatric illness.

On the whole, individuals may expect from psychodynamic psychotherapy a valuable opportunity to:

• Further develop their own psychological resources, for meaningful and effective personal functioning, and
• Learn about themselves by exploring self-reflective questions such as: why do they make the decisions they do; what motivates them; what works for them and what doesn't; why do they do certain things and why do they behave in certain ways at different times – resulting in meaningful personal growth.

Choosing the Right Psychologist

Choosing which psychologist to see is at least as important as choosing your doctor, dentist or other health professional – perhaps even more so because of the potential for a very personal and demanding commitment.

The nature of the relationship between a client or patient and their psychologist has been the focus of some important research over the last few decades – research which has consistently identified the therapeutic relationship as being one of the most significant factors influencing therapy outcomes.

Simply put: your relationship with your therapist is absolutely critical to your therapy.

When deciding which psychologist, you should, first and foremost, feel comfortable that you can form a reliable and safe professional relationship with them. This may not be evident immediately, but it should be within a reasonable period of time, within the first few sessions. Some useful thoughts and questions that may help you with this decision include asking (yourself and/or your psychologist!):

• What services may this particular psychologist offer (there are different types of psychologists who have different scopes of practice, as prescribed by the Health Professions Council of South Africa)?
• How does this particular psychologist provide their services (psychologists with the same scope of practice may differ vastly in the way that they practice)?
• Who is this psychologist (personal attributes such as gender, age, or general disposition are important indicators as to how well you may "fit" with a particular psychologist and/or to what extent you may develop a successful working relationship with them)?

For more information about the different registration categories for psychologists (Clinical, Counselling, Educational, Industrial Neuropsychology and Research) with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, please click here.

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