Toronto Psychotherapy

Why Choose Psychotherapy?

…A host of reasons lead one to consider psychotherapy. One might experience symptoms like anxiety, depression, or recurring negative thoughts. One might be dealing with chronic relationship problems, chronic anger, low self-esteem, or a general feeling of discontent. While each of these difficulties has distinct qualities and causes, they all involve aspects of mind that remain outside of our immediate awareness: feelings, thoughts, motives, perceptions and beliefs. Psychotherapy allows one, overtime, to acquire a more enhanced awareness of oneself and to achieve greater control of one’s problem through self-understanding.

Finding The Right Therapist

Q: How do I find the right therapist?

A: In doing therapy, you invest time and money in a process designed to alleviate pain and promote change in your life. Since your decision represents an important step forward, finding an effective therapist is key. Consider these 2 points. First, keep in mind that you are entitled to ask a therapist about his or her credentials, training and approach. This information helps you assess whether the therapist has the appropriate skills and the experience. Second, take your “gut feelings” seriously. If you have misgivings during the first few sessions, try to voice them – a good therapist will respect these concerns and discuss them with you. Perhaps the discussion will clarify that the match isn’t optimal for you. On the other hand, you may discover that your misgivings have less to do with the therapist, and relate more to personal issues that you can explore as part of the therapeutic process. Although the pressure to get into therapy right away can sometimes feel intense, it is always best initially to meet with more than one therapist to select the person you feel most comfortable with.

Inner Attention

…I generally tell patients: “The best way to get rid of a feeling you don’t want is to let yourself have it”…It’s not that letting yourself have the feeling makes the feeling disappear. Rather, it changes the feeling from one you don’t want, and need to control because you’re afraid of it, into one you can comfortably accept. But how can this be? The process of inner attention through which you let the feeling happen – the psychotherapeutic process – actually changes the way you experience the feeling. In fact what you discover is that it wasn’t really a feeling you were so uncomfortable with in the first place, but rather the unsettling pressure of an emotion. Becoming more conscious of the feeling that goes with this disturbing emotion tends to diffuse the emotion – making it possible to simply have the emotion as an inner experience without being so unsettled by it, or so pressured to act on it impulsively. Quoted in Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain by Elio Frattaroli, M.D.