Existential Therapy for when life gets tough…
ANXIETY, ANGST AND RUMINATION
Anxiety, whether it’s in the form of constant worrying or acute panic attacks, can be debilitating and can suck the joy out of life. Therapy can be an effective tool to examine these phenomena. Where do they spring from? What are they trying to tell us? Therapy provides an opportunity to take a more active stance on anxiety, not to run from it but to delve in and explore it. By listening to, and understanding, our anxiety we can reducing the pain it causes.
SELF-ESTEEM AND IDENTITY
The question of who we are, and how we are seen by others is central to our sense of security in the world. The story we tell about ourselves is hugely important. Why do we foreground some life experience and not others? In therapy we reflect on these choices. We have the opportunity to look at our life narrative and examine other perspectives. Therapy is an invitation to adapt and update our life story, which in turn can radically effect our sense of identity.
LOSTNESS AND CONFUSION
Sometimes we come to therapy because we’ve lost direction. Something is the matter but we’re not sure what exactly. Psychotherapy provides the pause from life, or a clearing, in which the problem can come into focus. It can take us in surprising directions and lead to new discoveries about who we really are and how we see the world.
SHAME
Shame can have a corrosive effect on our identities and self-expression. We can shrink into ourselves, feeling the oppressive weight of the judgement, or look, of the other. Shame is itself shameful and it can often be difficult to admit to ourselves that we feel ashamed. Often, it is revealed by the coping mechanisms we employ to keep it at bay. By understanding the structure of shame and its context - the culture, religion, family - which we were born into, we can start to break free from its tyranny. Within a compassionate and nonjudgmental framework, shame can be exposed, and over time lose its power.
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