Tag: online psychotherapy
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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…
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Why Guilt Can Be So Difficult to Let Go Of in Psychotherapy – Part 1
Guilt is a fairly common presenting problem in individual psychotherapy. Some patients come to psychotherapy because they are unable to manage a persistent feeling that they have done something wrong. They may feel responsible for hurting a husband, wife or partner, disappointing their children, neglecting a family member, behaving badly at work or causing difficulties…
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Why Emotional Patterns Persist for Years in Psychotherapy
Many people enter psychotherapy asking the same question: “Why do I keep reacting in the same way, even when I know it isn’t helping me?” They may recognise that certain situations repeatedly lead to anxiety, conflict, emotional withdrawal, guilt, self-criticism or relationship difficulties. They often understand intellectually that these reactions are causing problems, yet they…
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Why Certain Memories Return Repeatedly in Psychotherapy
Memory has fascinated physicians, neurologists, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts for centuries. Long before modern neuroscience was able to examine the living brain, clinicians were trying to understand what memory actually is, how it develops, why some memories remain vivid throughout life while others disappear, and why certain experiences seem to return repeatedly despite a person’s efforts…
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What Silence Can Mean in Psychotherapy
Silence is one of the most misunderstood aspects of psychotherapy. Many people imagine a therapist sitting quietly while the patient talks, or long periods where nothing is said. Some wonder whether silence means that the therapist has nothing to contribute, while others worry that they are expected to keep talking simply to fill the empty…