What’s the goal of therapy?
You could talk to several different therapists and get several different answers for what their goal is with their clients. A lot of this depends on a therapist’s theory that they practice from. Some will say that they hope to help you change your thoughts, some will say they hope to help you change behaviors, and some others would say they hope to help you attune to your emotions.
For me and my theory, psychodynamic psychotherapy, my goal, simply put, is awareness. When a client comes in with depression I hope to help them gain awareness of what triggers their depression, awareness of helpful and unhelpful coping skills, and awareness of contributing factors to the depression. Replace depression with any other presenting symptom and the statement still applies.
What can be simply stated in a paragraph translates to beautiful and sometimes rather difficult work in the therapy room.
When I explain this to clients they often ask, “and what do we do after we have awareness?” And to that, I say, “I”m not sure, but oftentimes the answer comes not too long after the awareness.”
The awareness gained looks different from client to client. It’s a part of why I love this work so much. I enter the room never being quite sure what will happen and leaving with insight that is different from client to client. But, I’ve never had a client where we’ve gained awareness and had to wait too long before we know what to do next.
Sometimes it’s an awareness that a person has significantly low self-esteem and we progress towards building self-compassion and finding joy in self.
Sometimes it’s an awareness that a person fears abandonment and we progress to building confidence in relationships and comfortability in being vulnerable with others.
And still, other times it’s an awareness that a person harbors much resentment towards past attachment figures in their lives and we progress to creating a safe space to express that resentment and provide care and compassion for that space in their life.
I could type an endless blog for all the awareness that has been gained with my clients and the ensuing work that we have done as it has never looked the same for any two clients. This work isn’t always easy, but engaging in it allows you to experience freedom and richness in life that is uniquely captivating and breathtakingly beautiful.
