When considering counselling Godalming services it’s important to keep in mind that every potential patient is different. And the question of whether I will take someone into therapy will depend on various factors. For example, is the person psychologically-minded? Are they motivated? Could they tolerate the painful feelings and memories that may be stirred up in therapy? But another important factor will be the severity of the condition in question and whether an alternative form of therapy with another practitioner might be more appropriate either as a method of treatment generally or as a preliminary to analytic therapy. I will assess your needs on a case-by-case basis and recommend the best course of action for you.

Addictions would be a good example of where an alternative or preliminary alternative type of therapy might be valuable. If addiction is significant, it needs tackling on two levels. First of all, the particular behaviour needs to be halted and the abstinence needs to be maintained. A therapy like Integrative CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) might be particularly useful in achieving this. At that point, the person might wish to explore the underlying causes of their addiction and deal with them. That’s where analytic psychotherapy could come into play. I would need to be sure that anyone interested in therapy had been free of their behaviours for a year or so.

Conditions Treated In Our Counselling Godalming

Guildford Therapy provides counselling services in Godalming for a variety of conditions that are listed below:

How does psychotherapy operate?

Psychotherapy goes deep beneath the surface of difficulties into their origins. It works particularly with the unconscious mind.

Imagine the human mind as an iceberg. Some of it is above the waterline – the conscious ‘everyday’ mind – but a lot of it is hidden below the waterline – the unconscious mind. We may bury painful feelings and experiences or unacceptable parts of ourselves and our early relationships in our unconscious, beyond easy access. But out of sight isn’t out of mind. What’s buried may still exert a negative influence on our behaviour, our mood, our self-esteem, our health, our current relationships and our work. A girl with an aggressive father, for example, may grow up to be a woman who curiously keeps finding herself in relationships with abusive men. Part of the task of therapy is to bring what’s buried into the light of day and, in so doing, to release its grip.

The Importance Of A Therapeutic Relationship

Distinguished psychotherapist, Dennis Brown, once called analytic therapy ‘the use of personal relationships to help people in trouble’. A key part of it is the relationship with the therapist or the other members of a therapy group. As trust develops, it may be possible to explore, through talking, a person’s traditional ways of feeling, behaving and seeing others as they get enacted in the current therapeutic situation and then to modify them. It’s a ‘communicating cure’.

Does psychotherapy work?

As with any form of therapy, there can be no guarantee of success but the goal of analytic psychotherapy is deep and long-lasting change. There’s also increasing evidence from the latest scientific research that this positive change exists and is actually physically visible in the brain. The pioneering researcher and author, Dr Allen Schore, has done an extensive review of contemporary studies relating to neuroscience and psychotherapy. If you’ll excuse some jargon, he writes in his book, ‘The Science of the Art of Psychotherapy’: ‘Recent research in brain imaging, molecular biology and neurogenetics has shown that psychotherapy changes brain function and structure. Such studies have shown that psychotherapy affects regional cerebral blood flow, neurotransmitter metabolism, gene expression and persistent modifications in synaptic plasticity’. In other words, there’s hope!

How long does psychotherapy take?

Analytic therapy isn’t a quick fix. If you consider the years that it may take for problems to become deeply embedded in someone, you’ll see why identifying those processes and working through them will take some time. It’s impossible to be specific because every person is different, but it’s not uncommon for people to work in therapy for a year or more depending on the issues being explored. You may see some signs of improvement, however, after several months.

It’s important to keep in mind that for psychotherapy to be effective, it’s essential for sessions to take place at regular, fixed, weekly intervals.

How much does psychotherapy cost?

My fee for individual analytic psychotherapy is £55 for weekly fifty-minute sessions.

My fee for group analytic psychotherapy is £160 per calendar month for weekly hour-and-a-half sessions.

My fee for hour-and-a-half assessment sessions is £65.