“…..liberation does not involve the loss or destruction of such conventional concepts as the ego; it means seeing through them – in the same way that we can use the idea of the equator without confusing it with a physical mark upon the surface of the earth.”
-alan watts
Many people turn to psychotherapy in order to help them through particular crises that includes distressing feelings of anxiety and/or depression. Others want to gain a deeper understanding of their character traits and identity. You may find that you are experiencing some combination of wanting relief from symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders in addition to curiosity regarding the relation of symptoms to your own identity when seeking treatment.
At the outset there is typically a desire for relief from suffering, long-term resolution, and for a deeper understanding regarding one’s own contribution, if any, to a particular conflict.
In choosing to seek treatment, Dr. Rothschild often finds that a client has not only begun to recognize that in some way one is off track, but also to hope for the opportunity to make a change in a direction that could lead to flourishing.
However common, the experience of flickering hope occurring simultaneously with significant despair may well be confusing and disorienting. Some difficulties that lead to this sort of suffering include: problems in work or love relationships, disturbances in mood and self esteem, as well as confusion about identity and psychic pain.
Psychotherapy is individually tailored. If it is to be successful, you must be prepared to become actively involved in the process. If you decide to seek psychotherapy, a skilled psychotherapist should evaluate your current situation with the goal of aiming to help you identify and find specific ways to cope with current stressors.
As a clinical psychologist, Louis brings knowledge of the manner in which cognitive functioning, personality dynamics, and the impact of different social contexts interact and contribute to one’s experience.
The aim of psychoanalytic psychotherapy is the creation of a safe place from which to engage patterns of thought and behavior that lead to disproportionate feelings of anxiety and depression. The space created between a psychotherapist and patient facilitates the task of examining assumptions and feelings such as inhibition and despair in a manner so that hope, tolerance, and compassion may be found leading to a different engagement.
The social context of psychotherapy is unique in that communicative contact is privileged over the accommodation of self-deception. This typically means encountering short-term discomfort in the process of seeking the genuine relief found in having lost the burden of what is often experienced as a necessary artificiality. Psychotherapy facilitates such a coming to terms by working to create a creative opening in which one is able to learn from experience and utilize aspects of one’s identity that that have previously been eclipsed.
An overarching goal of psychotherapy may be considered the introduction of oneself to oneself in order to be able to make more authentic choices, feel a greater sense of autonomy, and generally less overwhelmed so that the journey of life may indeed be happier.