Counselling & Psychotherapy

What Is Psychotherapy All About?

Not long ago, I was renovating my kitchen. It was all going according to plan until I noticed some water pooling at the bottom of one of the walls. At first, I didn’t want to believe it, I couldn’t believe it, but then I touched it. Sure enough, it was water! The small pool of water was telling me that something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, since the cause was hidden behind the wall.

I had to decide if I was going to ignore the water, and keep pressing on, or was I going to investigate and figure out why the water was there.

I decided to engage the admittedly unwanted work of investigating, understanding, and repairing. The first thing I had to do was to remove the drywall so I could see what was hidden inside the wall. In my investigation, I discovered that the copper drainpipe had corroded, and was now leaking.  The pipe had not been properly sloped when it was installed.  Now, I could see the cause of the leak, make the repairs, and get my kitchen back to where it needed to be.

This is what psychotherapy is like. We are going along in life, and we discover that something is leaking, something is not working in our lives, in our minds, or in our hearts the way we want. A pool of water is forming, telling us something is amiss, and we are faced with a decision: will we engage the work of investigating, understanding, repair, and restoration?

My understanding of counselling or psychotherapy.  Counselling and psychotherapy are like renovation work where people do these four things: investigate (explore, uncover), understand (gain insight and self-knowledge), repair (rework beliefs, behaviours, or patterns), and finally, restore themselves to the wholeness of their true and authentic self. 

This, of course, takes work and effort, and it’s my job to be a wise, thoughtful, compassionate, and empathic support and a guide through the process.