Followers

Translate

NYC Psychotherapist Blog

power by WikipediaMindmap

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Getting to the Core of Your Problems With Experiential Therapy

Often, when people come to therapy, they have only a general sense that something is wrong.  It's up to the therapist to help therapy clients to get clarity about what the problem is so clients can heal.  When clients come to see me in my psychotherapy practice in New York City, I help them to get to the core of their problems.

Getting to the Core of Your Problems With Experiential Therapy


The Process of Getting to the Core of Your Problems in Therapy With the Mind-Body Connection
Getting from a general sense of unease to the core of your problems in therapy is a process.

It's not unusual that even when clients to come to therapy for several problems that are occurring at the same time, the core issue is often the same.

The following scenario is a composite of many cases to protect confidentiality:

Pete
When Pete began therapy, he was feeling lonely, isolated and unfilled in his career.

Pete had a general sense that he was unhappy but, other than that, he was at complete loss.

As we continued to explore Pete's feelings, we focused on his emotions and where he was sensing his loneliness and dissatisfaction in his body.

It took Pete a while before he could learn to sense his emotions in his body.  But when he did, he sensed his feelings in his chest.  And, as soon as he was able to pinpoint where he felt his emotions, the words that came to him were, "I'm not good enough."

This took Pete by surprise, but he said it fit how he was feeling.  He said these words completely encapsulated the feeling he had about himself throughout his life.

We used the words, "I'm not good enough" to go back to the earliest time when he felt this way about himself.

As we continued to explore this, we went back to earlier and earlier memories, and it became clear that this feeling was longstanding and they were related to severe criticism from his father that Pete endured from an early age.

We knew, of course, that we couldn't change the past.  But we could work in therapy to help Pete to heal from these trauma experiences.

See my article: Mind-Body Therapy - Healing Trauma With New Symbolic Memories for a description of one way that I work with these types of issues.

Over time, Pete was able to work through his feelings of worthlessness which were at the core of his social isolation, loneliness, and career dissatisfaction.

Gradually, as he began to feel better about himself, he went out more, made friends, and began dating.  He also found a job that he liked a lot more.

The Process of Getting to Core Problem Begins With the Mind-Body Connection
All of this began by getting to the core of the problem using the mind-body connection rather than an intellectual process of just talking about it.

This is because, as I've mentioned in an earlier article,  Mind-Body Psychotherapy: The Body is a Window Into the Unconscious Mind, the body acts as a vehicle to get to unconscious process that's often not available to you when you're just thinking or talking about it.

Getting Help in Therapy
If you've been struggling with a general sense that something is wrong, but you've been unable to get to the core of your problems, you could benefit from working with a licensed psychotherapist who has a mind-body orientation to therapy.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.