Healing Through Connexion

Irrespective of the duration of therapy or therapeutic technique, the therapeutic relationship is a cornerstone of all types of psychological talk-based therapy. Each treatment is also designed to cater to a person's unique needs.

Brief evidence-based therapies focus on providing a person with 'a vehicle for achieving and sustaining desired change'. For example, brief cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying and modifying cognitive and behavioural patterns. Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a brief, structured therapy that addresses interpersonal issues. Short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) helps by working through specific conflicting aspects of personal experience. Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) is a resource and goal-focused therapeutic approach. 

How is it possible that some have all they ever needed in life, yet they constantly struggle with mental health symptoms? How is it that some of us with traumatic experiences can brush it off as if nothing ever happened? And how is it for you? 

Trauma has 'many faces'. It can start in early life with separation from a significant other, or with a tragic life event, or an awful encounter. Sometimes, it occurs when those in authority abuse their position of power. This might not be obvious initially, particularly when the power is institutionalised. In other words, when it comes from school, work, services, or in the most tragic cases – from those who should love and protect us. Trauma can drag for generations. But remember, seeking support is a courageous step towards healing.

Faced with the diversity of cultural and subjective identities and experiences, aiming at some normative solution to the human condition becomes increasingly irrelevant and ludicrous. Lacanian psychoanalysis aims at ‘absolute difference’ by empowering the individual to invent their own subjective solution that guarantees a place in the social discourse. In other words, it aspires to allow a modern subject to find their 'Room of One's Own'. 

Lacanian psychoanalysis is contemporary, both short—and long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. It brings more than a century of Freudian experience and clinical practice into the subjective experience of a modern subject. As complicated as Lacanian theory may seem, clinical practice focuses on a person's words, their use in speech, and the knowledge that concerns the particular subject. 

Understanding that children's abstract thinking and conceptual vocabulary are limited, therapists use play therapy techniques to identify cognitive patterns and themes. They provide a non-threatening space for children to express their emotions and thoughts in a playful manner, fostering a sense of safety and comfort. 

Play therapy, an evidence-based treatment utilises children’s play to engage them in therapy within an age-appropriate context. The clinician’s skill is to think analytically about all that is happening in the session and the themes and structures that the child communicates symbolically through the use of toys and art.

When a person drives their own plan, they are more likely to exercise a greater sense of self-direction, self-determination, and self-management. They have a clear vision of what they want and what role they want psychologists to play in assisting them. 

Recovery planning is a highly personalised process that encompasses many aspects of a person's life. It is developed by the person and based on their unique aspirations, dreams, and interests.