What is Individual Psychotherapy?

Individual psychotherapy is the most common form of psychotherapy and involves one-to-one discussion between the patient and the psychotherapist.

The aim of psychotherapy is to help you understand why you think and behave in a certain way and to help you deal with difficult situations you find yourself in, move on from problems and worry less about the future.

A therapist will help you explore your thoughts and feelings and help you find new ways of dealing with your emotions and thoughts. They will also help you develop new skills to use in difficult times, such as meditation or breathing techniques. Individual therapy can be used for any mental health condition, including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, PTSD, addiction and more.

During psychotherapy, the psychotherapist will ask you to express your thoughts, feelings and beliefs in an attempt to show you how your thought patterns have influenced your life. That’s why psychotherapy takes place in a safe and comfortable environment, so you can be supported as you begin to deal with your problems. Despite some prejudices, you might even enjoy this process of self-discovery and analysis because psychotherapy encourages constructive thinking, where we look for solutions and alternatives, not excuses and blame.

For psychotherapy to work, it is important to focus on the problems you have, how you contribute to those problems, your interpretations and thoughts. Whatever the source of the unpleasant situations you are going through, you cannot do psychotherapy with someone who is not in the practice. Therefore, in psychotherapy, the whole discussion will revolve around you and your life.

What does a psychotherapist do?

A psychotherapist is a mental health professional who helps people with emotional or psychological problems. They might help someone with a mental illness or addiction, for example. A psychotherapist may also work with people who are experiencing depression, anxiety, stress, relationship difficulties and other problems.

A psychotherapy session might involve discussing your thoughts and feelings to help you understand them better. It might also involve looking at the ways you behave when you feel stressed or anxious to see if you can do something differently next time. Some therapies might involve exercise to help you increase your self-awareness and understanding of how your body works. Others may include role-playing activities or homework to help you learn new skills. A psychotherapy session lasts 45 minutes, usually once a week.

Benefits of individual therapy and how it can help you

Therapy is a process that helps people better understand themselves and improve their mental health.

Therapy can help you with improving your mental health by giving you a safe space to talk about your thoughts and feelings. It can also help you develop coping skills, which will make it easier for you to deal with difficult situations in the future.

Individual therapy is a type of therapy that focuses on one person at a time. This type of therapy is often used when someone has a problem they need help with, but it’s not something that affects other people or their relationships.

Therapy can help you learn about yourself, understand your experiences and emotions, and let go of any negative thoughts or feelings that may be holding you back. It can also help you develop new coping skills in difficult situations.

The aim of therapy is to help you change the way you think, feel and act to improve your life. Therapy teaches you personal communication and problem-solving skills that can help you identify irrational thoughts and reactions to change them. Therapy can help you reduce your feelings of depression, anxiety, guilt, shame and self-blame by identifying the distorted thought patterns that perpetuate these negative emotions.

Conclusion about individual therapy

When beginning a psychotherapeutic process, it is helpful to fully engage in your own psychotherapy. This means not only keeping to your session schedule and being punctual, but also being serious in your approach to the process: you will often have to do things from one session to the next, for example I will ask you to experiment with different behaviours or thoughts. It is extremely important to put all these recommendations into practice in order to effectively make changes in your life. Psychotherapy is not just about the weekly session but also about what you do after you leave the practice.

One of the most important things you can do in the office is to be honest and open with the psychotherapist. For example, if you are told something you don’t agree with, bring it up openly. The psychotherapist will either accept your point of view and adapt the strategy to your personality (if they have said or done something that is deeply at odds with you), or they will explain in more detail how they came to that conclusion, giving you more information to allow you to assess whether you are on the right track.

Useful resources:

A detailed overview of psychotherapy

Information on the effectiveness of psychotherapy

Some reasons why people go to psychotherapy