The Psychotherapist

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The role of the psychotherapist is to listen and interpret what the client is saying. Some people feel that simply talking to a complete stranger is, in fact, therapeutic. Friends and members of the family may be too involved, over-emotional, or even condemnatory or judgmental, and are often too busy to really listen.

The psychotherapist is someone who is totally uninvolved and detached, whose good opinion or otherwise does not matter, and who has time to listen. Furthermore-and this is an important part of psychotherapy-the talking can go on over a longish period of time, often quite a few months, so that there is no sense of rush.

There is plenty of time to explore past experiences and relationships. The person with a problem feels that at last there is someone there to listen and help.

The basic aim of analysis and therapy may not vary from one therapist to another, but the method of approach does. Some of them are closer to the techniques of Freud than others and advocate that clients say anything that comes into their heads, using a kind of free association as a means of unblocking the unconscious. Other therapists may prompt the client with a few gentle leading questions, especially as a means of getting each session started.

Some adopt a more formal, traditional approach than others and ask the client to lie on a sofa in such a way that he or she is unable to see the therapist. External stimuli are reduced to a minimum in an effort to get the client to concentrate as much as possible on his or her own thoughts.

Others regard this as being too rigid an approach and choose to talk to their clients in a less formal setting, although the therapists themselves are never intrusive.

Many people find psychotherapy a very useful and rewarding therapy. At the very least they can talk about things they have never dreamt of speaking about before and can learn to face up to them. They can learn to come to terms with the past and be able to reach some understanding of how the past, with its suppressed fears and emotions, has effected their present and prevented them living life to the full. People can feel much more comfortable with themselves, and be able to go forward in a much more relaxed and confident way to build a future.