Why Therapy? Four good reasons to see a counselor or therapist

Why do people go to a therapist or counselor? These are the four levels of therapy and counseling that will benefit or contribute to your life in fruitful ways and, in some cases, in ways you can only guess at.

The first level is symptomatic or problem-based counseling. If you have a specific problem, such as disturbing nightmares, recurring eczema or skin problems, irritation, negativity, or relationship problems, counseling, usually short-term, can be of great benefit. The objective is obvious and clear: to deal with the problem that is presented, not to go too deep and find a solution, a way to overcome the problem. Generally anything from 6 to 10 sessions should suffice and an effective professional should get the job done.

The second is therapy that goes a little deeper than the first level of purely symptomatic counseling. Therefore, it is almost certain that looking for the underlying causes of the problems that arise is involved. For example, a middle-aged man experiencing a crisis of confidence discovers that his relationship with his domineering father is the underlying cause of his current concerns, which negatively affect his functioning in the workplace. worked. Or, in another example, a woman in her mid-thirties who discovers she is attracted to younger men rediscovers her unlived adolescence that she lost to early security, marriage, and motherhood when she left home at 19 to marry a man. man who had material security. . But even though he offered her financial and material security, she was unable to know her emotionally and intimately in her relationship. In both examples, a deeper cause or association is the key to solving the problem.

Third is what is known as classical psychotherapy, deep psychotherapy, or major psychotherapy (so many names!). In this approach to inner work, the client (or the patient in analysis) enters into a long-term commitment to a competent professional whose training and skills enable him or her to competently guide him or her through the inner terrain to the very source of the problem. client’s psyche. Deep existential questions can arise such as: Who am I? What if my purpose? How did I come to be? And for the spiritually or religiously inclined, the source of being, or an experience of the numinous dimension of life.

Finally, the fourth level of psychotherapy and counseling is transpersonal or psychospiritual. This may include all three levels above, in particular depth psychotherapy, but goes beyond personality, character, and associated issues to the spiritual, transcendent, and divine realms of human experience and reality. Arguably the forefront of inner discovery, this approach is seen by many people (including myself) as vital today as it is directly related to ecology, political struggles and injustice, fanaticism, religious intolerance and the ignorance. The intention of psychospiritual therapy is not only to awaken the client-seeker individually, but also to awaken the collective humanity.