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Psychotherapy

by Jonathan Caflisch

What is psychotherapy? The stigma attached around this issue is very big and scary for many people. If one was to go to psychotherapy! There is an assumption that there must be something seriously wrong with one's mind or that you are mentally ill. I believe it has a lot to do with unexpressed, unfinished and unmet expectations still held by the conscious mind.

Nevertheless, they are assumptions and beliefs and those assumptions vary from people to people, professionals to professionals who have different root assumptions. An impact left in early childhood while described in Gabour Matés' book, "When the Body Says No." It is the beliefs literally wired into our brains, which is causing difficulty in the present.

Psychotherapy, as complex as it may seem, is simply bringing beliefs, beliefs accepted or left by a negative impact that do not work or are contradictory into our consciousness, so we can change them either by expressing them or through logic install beliefs which work.

Those changes will affect what Satir workers call the iceberg, meaning changing our feelings, feelings about our feelings, perceptions, our expectations, and through this process we get in touch with our true yearnings.

All of this will certainly affect our self, the beliefs of who we are. After all, we need to recognize that our body is the biofeedback system for our internal thoughts.

Integrated body psychotherapy is an approach which views the body itself as conscious, holding memories and unexpressed feelings of joy, love and anger. This provides the therapist with a wide variety of approaches for change. It is a process of becoming consciously aware of self defeating and contradictory beliefs within. That way, we can change them and through logic and increased awareness we can install new beliefs which are beneficial to our health.

Body, breath and energy work, acupuncture, acupressure, sound and chakra work and thought processing all are used to bring results.

How do I know what therapy works for me?

Jonathan: When you feel empowered and in charge of yourself and your health, when you are on the path of becoming more of yourself, then you know that you have chosen the therapy that works for you.

Can I afford good therapy?

Good therapy requires a lot of education and is more fun in groups at a fraction of cost. Individual therapy is good to get a kick-start out of a stuck place, but prolonged, I believe it could become negative.

I have developed my own eclectic style and do not necessarily express the view of other groups.

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