Transactional Analysis (TA)
TA Psychotherapy is an integrative and humanistic approach within psychotherapy with it's roots in psychoanalytic and cognitive approaches. It is a theory of personality and development as well as transactions between people and the environment.
The TA philosophy is:
The TA philosophy is:
- People are OK; thus each person has validity, importance, equality of respect.
- Everyone has the capacity to think
- People decide their story and destiny, therefore these decisions can be changed.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness has it's roots in Mindfulness Meditation. It was first developed for preventing a relapse of depression . It is usually taught as an 8 week program in groups, but mindfulness can also be used as part of one-to-one psychotherapy to aid the development of awareness of ones own thoughts and feelings and accepting them without judgement, rather than reacting impulsively. That way unhealthy thinking and behavioural coping mechanisms can be avoided new positive ones adopted.
Person-Centred Therapy
Here, Mike Sivori explains Person-Centred Therapy:
We can begin by saying that therapy means 'the release of tension'. There are a great many things in life which we can do that relieve tension that are pleasurable, that take our minds off our worries and problems – activities that are therapeutic. You already do some of that.
You might say that in essence, the principle of PCT is to help you restore trust in yourself. The outcome of the therapy is that you will be in touch with parts of yourself that you had previously denied. You will feel freer, less critical of yourself; you will be more open and accepting of yourself; you will have less internal 'conflict' and will feel you have more energy to live effectively, and more motivated to achieve your goals.
Many of the things that cause us problems are things about ourselves we are uncomfortable about or are 'in conflict' with and we put a lot of energy into denying or distorting these. This means we live with a lot of tension – both psychological and physical -which we aren't even aware of.
However in psychotherapy or counselling we aim to reduce the more deeper-rooted, long-lasting psychological tensions that have been there for a while. This could be any number of things: – perhaps for one reason or another, you never had chance to properly grieve the loss of a special person in your life, or the end of a marriage or relationship, or the effects of a long-term illness, or losing your career. The emotions around that grief never went far, you just had to cope with everything that was going on for you, and so your feelings never got attended to properly. But the effect of carrying around those emotions is that you are left with that tension.
In counselling and psychotherapy we create a space where those emotional tensions can finally be released.
Often we find that what has stood in our way has been ideas or values we hold about ourselves to be true; and it is these values, fixed and inflexible, that we hold about ourselves which create problems. The fixed, often highly self-critical ideas you hold about yourself, blinker you from being open to the vast spectrum of things that you are. And often we are so used to having those blinkers that we just think that they are normal and are a part of 'who we are'. Sometimes these were put in place, sometimes not. A therapist will follow your lead and your direction; will help you find out, and then work through those with you.
In PCT the process of change means that we release the blinkers, and the self judgements, and emotional tension by accepting ourselves; and not by living our lives against a rigid, fixed set of values that tell are not relevant to the person you are today – and the person you are in the process of becoming.
In PCT we do not see you as a victim of your past, but as a person in the process of discovering and becoming who you really are. It is profoundly exciting, meaningful, and rewarding.
We can begin by saying that therapy means 'the release of tension'. There are a great many things in life which we can do that relieve tension that are pleasurable, that take our minds off our worries and problems – activities that are therapeutic. You already do some of that.
You might say that in essence, the principle of PCT is to help you restore trust in yourself. The outcome of the therapy is that you will be in touch with parts of yourself that you had previously denied. You will feel freer, less critical of yourself; you will be more open and accepting of yourself; you will have less internal 'conflict' and will feel you have more energy to live effectively, and more motivated to achieve your goals.
Many of the things that cause us problems are things about ourselves we are uncomfortable about or are 'in conflict' with and we put a lot of energy into denying or distorting these. This means we live with a lot of tension – both psychological and physical -which we aren't even aware of.
However in psychotherapy or counselling we aim to reduce the more deeper-rooted, long-lasting psychological tensions that have been there for a while. This could be any number of things: – perhaps for one reason or another, you never had chance to properly grieve the loss of a special person in your life, or the end of a marriage or relationship, or the effects of a long-term illness, or losing your career. The emotions around that grief never went far, you just had to cope with everything that was going on for you, and so your feelings never got attended to properly. But the effect of carrying around those emotions is that you are left with that tension.
In counselling and psychotherapy we create a space where those emotional tensions can finally be released.
Often we find that what has stood in our way has been ideas or values we hold about ourselves to be true; and it is these values, fixed and inflexible, that we hold about ourselves which create problems. The fixed, often highly self-critical ideas you hold about yourself, blinker you from being open to the vast spectrum of things that you are. And often we are so used to having those blinkers that we just think that they are normal and are a part of 'who we are'. Sometimes these were put in place, sometimes not. A therapist will follow your lead and your direction; will help you find out, and then work through those with you.
In PCT the process of change means that we release the blinkers, and the self judgements, and emotional tension by accepting ourselves; and not by living our lives against a rigid, fixed set of values that tell are not relevant to the person you are today – and the person you are in the process of becoming.
In PCT we do not see you as a victim of your past, but as a person in the process of discovering and becoming who you really are. It is profoundly exciting, meaningful, and rewarding.
