What is a talking therapy?
A “talking cure” of psychodynamic counselling or psychotherapy – particularly one oriented by psychoanalysis – offers the space and time for people to begin to better articulate their difficulties, and thereby find their own compass points to help re-orient themselves. This process helps people reconnect with themselves, their bodies and the world in a way that brings vitality back to their lives. It helps to understand how the fabric of their identity has been singularly constructed, making it possible to explore what underlies the more manifest truths of each individual's life, and effect change once something of the cause and function of symptoms has been touched upon.
Providing psychodynamic counselling, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis at PSY-Practice Covent Garden, our therapists offer a point of address and treatment in the Central London for anyone suffering symptoms of emotional or mental health difficulties, including:
- Depression
- bereavement and issues around loss
- post-natal depression
- anxiety, panic attacks
- stress
- compulsive or obsessional thoughts/acts
- feelings of destructiveness/anger/aggression
- trauma
- body issues, image and identity
- isolation and loneliness
- sexual and/or relationship difficulties
- sexual orientation and sexual identity
- eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia)
- self-harm
- medically unexplained physical symptoms
- abuse
- suicidal thoughts
- psychiatric diagnoses
- post-traumatic stress disorder
- gambling.
These common labels/diagnoses are useful names/classifications to begin to make sense of and to describe and narrate our difficulties to ourselves and others. But while analytically oriented theory understands the logic at stake in symptom-types like depression, anxiety, or addiction, for instance, no two experiences of such symptoms have the same cause, meaning or precise function for two people. And no two people will respond to the same one-size-fits-all standard treatment.
These labels cannot, in the long run, capture our uniqueness. If used exclusively to describe personal suffering, they are merely reifications of the problematic and can over-write our individuality. More pertinently, they offer insufficient value for the more creative, long-lasting solutions that a treatment oriented by psychoanalysis aims for.
At PSY-Practice, we aim to elicit what is particular to each person's situation and singular in the narrative of their life, in order to intervene on and treat more effectively the underlying cause of what is troubling for him or her. We understand the cause of repetitive symptoms to be manifestations of underlying, often unconscious or partially conscious relations with the words and acts of others, usually initiated in our formative years. This is a time when we are less well equipped to find the words to articulate what has hurt or overwhelmed us, or what seems unsayable.
The effect of this unconscious aspect can be observed in what seems to repeat in our lives. It could be a compulsive or seemingly nonsensical behaviour that repeats, or it could be a particular type of dysfunctional relationship or specific scenario we fixate upon, or feel as a kind of addiction. For some, the difficulty may pertain to sexual life. Despite the distress various symptoms may cause to us or those around us, we may feel unable to stop repeating such patterns.
Our therapists work on the assumption that a symptom will not go away until we find a way to hear what it has to say about the emotional life of each unique person - that is to say how it has been interpreted up until now - and determine something of its function in the logic of an individual's life.
By isolating and operating on what is fundamentally at stake for each person, we work with people to enable them to effect change in their lives, if they so choose, and to find a singular way with feelings of impasse and what manifests initially as a symptom or worry. Therapists' interest in each person is oriented and focused, therefore, not just on the removal of distressing symptoms, but equally on a person's unique potentiality and capacity to enjoy life.
If you are interested in discussing with us a first consultation, please do leave a message for us on 07812 472 286. Alternatively please feel free to email us, Michele Julien michele@psy-practice.co.uk and Sophia Berouka sophia@psy-practice.co.uk, or by using our email contact form. We endeavour to reply within 24 hours...
Practice Location
- Centrally based a few minutes from Covent Garden underground station, in Covent Garden, London. PSY-Practice is highly accessible to those working or residing in Soho, Westminster, Covent Garden, Kensington, St James’s, Belgravia, Marylebone, Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia and the Southbank.
