I work in general psychotherapy practice, and you might have all sorts of reasons for coming to see me.
You are unique and my job is to be a good student of you and your life. I am interested in you as a person, rather than as a diagnosis, and I have to discover how I might be of most use to you in the work.
Most often you will come to see me because you are struggling with some aspect of your life: You may simply be struggling to handle the pressures of everyday living; be struggling with a relationship; maybe you are recovering from trauma or a breakdown; perhaps you also have a disorder such as depression, an eating disorder, a psychotic condition, or perhaps you are battling self-harm.
Perhaps you have been affected by psychological, physical or sexual abuse.
There is good evidence that psychotherapy is effective for a range of difficulties including: The treatment of depression; anxiety disorders; eating disorders; and borderline personality disorders.
However you don’t need to be struggling for us to work together - you may simply want a greater sense of aliveness, to understand yourself better, to feel more ‘human’.
Sometimes the reasons you gave yourself for beginning psychotherapy turn out not to be so important. Socrates described the unexamined life as the life not worth living.
You are likely to make good use of psychotherapy if you want to understand yourself better. It helps if you are also willing to tolerate uncertainty and ready to consider another point of view, but these are not essential.