The prefix psycho comes from the Greek word psychē, meaning breath, vital energy, spirit, or soul and the word therapy comes from the Greek word therapeia or therapeuein, which means to nurse or cure. In this regard psychotherapy could be seen as a healing process to maintain or regain a healthy spirit.
Psychotherapy as we practice it today, began in the 19th century with Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was called the "talking cure", and therapy practised today is still characterized by the verbal exchange between the therapist and the person seeking help. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy asserts that the impact of early childhood experiences, that seem forgotten but are stored in the unconscious, can significantly contribute to adult emotional problems.
The contribution psychotherapy can make in your life is to help increase your awareness of the present moment, to bring into consciousness what previously has been unconscious, to gain insight into the dynamics that influence your relationship to yourself and to others. The more aware you are of your motives, feelings, thoughts, actions and perceptions, the more you can control your live and the less you get caught up in old patterns that do not work any more. Psychotherapy offers the context in which you find the opportunity, and hopefully the courage, to do exactly that, to experience your thoughts and feelings more clearly than ever before and to allow yourself new ways to accurately articulate your experiences.
My approach to psychotherapy is integrative, an attempt to combine ideas and strategies from more than one theoretical approach. I incorporate other modalities and techniques such as Gestalt elements and Sandplay Therapy components into my work if appropriate.
