Tag: mental-health
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Understanding Shame and Its Emotional Effects in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life – Part 5
Shame is not only an experience that patients describe from outside psychotherapy. It frequently enters the treatment itself and begins influencing what the patient says, what remains unspoken and how the relationship with the psychotherapist develops. A patient may enter psychotherapy because they feel depressed, anxious, socially isolated or unable to sustain relationships. They may…
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Understanding Shame and Its Emotional Effects in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life – Part 4
Pathological shame does not affect people only when the emotion is fully present. In some patients, the fear that shame might return becomes almost as powerful and destructive as the shame itself. The person may remember how overwhelming the feeling was on an earlier occasion. They remember the sense of exposure, worthlessness or internal collapse…
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Understanding Shame and Its Emotional Effects in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life – Part 3
Shame does not remain contained within one memory or one difficult situation. When it becomes established, it begins influencing how the person behaves, how they relate to others and what they believe they are capable of doing. The person may not always say that they feel ashamed. They may describe themselves as anxious, depressed, unmotivated,…
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Understanding Shame and Its Emotional Effects in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life – Part 2
Many patients who struggle with shame in adult life eventually return, through recollection, to experiences from childhood. They may begin psychotherapy by describing difficulties that appear to belong entirely to the present. They feel incapable at work, inadequate in relationships, uncomfortable in social situations or deeply anxious whenever somebody criticises them. They may constantly compare…
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Understanding Shame and Its Emotional Effects in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life – Part 1
Shame is one of the most painful emotions people bring into psychotherapy. It can affect how a person sees themselves, how they imagine they are seen by others and how confidently they participate in everyday life.
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Why Guilt Can Be So Difficult to Let Go Of in Psychotherapy – Part 6
Guilt does not usually disappear in psychotherapy through one explanation, one interpretation or one moment of insight. Even when the patient understands intellectually that their responsibility has been exaggerated, the emotional experience may continue. This is because persistent guilt is rarely held only as an idea. It is often woven into the patient’s personality, relationships…
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Why Guilt Can Be So Difficult to Let Go Of in Psychotherapy – Part 5
Working with guilt in psychotherapy is rarely a matter of deciding whether the patient should or should not feel guilty. The experience is usually much more complicated than that. Sometimes the patient has done something they genuinely regret. Sometimes the responsibility has been greatly exaggerated. Sometimes the event itself is unclear, but the patient still…
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Why Guilt Can Be So Difficult to Let Go Of in Psychotherapy – Part 4
Patients often begin psychotherapy by describing guilt connected with events outside the treatment. They may speak about something that happened within a marriage, a family, a friendship or a working relationship. They may explain how they hurt somebody, failed to act when they believe they should have acted, or remained preoccupied with something they did…
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Why Guilt Can Be So Difficult to Let Go Of in Psychotherapy – Part 3
People do not all experience guilt in the same way. Some are able to recognise that they have made a mistake, feel remorse, try to repair the situation and eventually move forward. Others can remain preoccupied with guilt for months or years, even after they have apologised or done everything reasonably possible to correct what…
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Why Guilt Can Be So Difficult to Let Go Of in Psychotherapy – Part 2
One of the first difficulties in working with guilt is establishing where it comes from. Sometimes the patient can point to a clear event and describe exactly what happened. At other times, the guilt is much harder to connect with anything definite. The person may feel deeply responsible, ashamed or frightened by what they believe…