When a person lives through internal suffering or visible symptoms, he often feels alone with his pain.
People usually try to cope with their problems using all the instruments at hand. At times this effort is enough, but other times it isn’t, and the pain keeps coming back.
Asking for therapeutic support, the client first of all recognises that alone he cannot deal with everything.
Entrusting a professional, the client will be assisted through his efforts and struggles.
He will soon discover to be the real protagonist of his own journey, looking both at his challenging present and at his history with fresh eyes.
What is psychotherapy then? Borrowing an expression from Dr. Erba, founder of my psychotherapy training school “Il Ruolo Terapeutico”, starting a psychotherapy means “gently diving into the water” of personal sufferings and inner life, conscious not to be alone.
The therapist is a qualified and skilled person, ready to stay with the client and go with him through his symptoms, pains and difficulties.
It really is a journey. In its beginning identifying a path might seem difficult as in a foggy day. Going on with the therapy however, that fog will gradually disappear and the client will be able to see many different landscapes, maybe not all beautiful, but anyway visible and therefore less scary.
WHEN IS IT TIME TO START A THERAPY?
It may seem obvious, but the most appropriate answer to this question is that a therapy really begins when there is a wish to start.
Many people experience distress and symptoms like anxiety, panic attacks, depression and mood disorders, somatic disorders, relational problems, eating disorders and many others. However, only some of them start a psychotherapy.
Where is the difference then? Some of them probably start feeling uncomfortable with their own way of living. They start feeling that change is needed in their life. Even if they may not be so conscious of the reasons for the psychotherapeutic choice, in that specific moment of their life they decide to follow this instinct.
WHO PSYCHOTHERAPY IS FOR?
Psychotherapy is for all those people who experience a suffering, a distress or a pain, and feel the wish to bring about a change. This pain may surface through a wide variety of symptoms.
In my professional experience I’ve been working with people experiencing anxiety (phobia, panic attacks, generalized anxiety), somatic disorders, depression and mood disorders, eating disorders, but also relational problems, internal or external to couple and family, and times of crisis related to separation, mourning, migration or organic disorder.
I offer my skills in these areas, perfectly conscious that I will never meet a mere mental health problem, but first and foremost a person.