Psychotherapy
by Dee McMath
Psychotherapy is guidance given by a fully qualified psychotherapist to help you to understand yourself and why you act in certain ways. People usually seek psychotherapy after prolonged periods of depression, after trauma such as bereavement, divorce, etc. or simply for a general feeling of being stuck in rut, repeating old worn out life patterns.
There are many practicing psychotherapists in Andalucia, both Spanish and English speaking. The English-speaking therapists are mainly to be found on the highly foreign populated area of the Costa del Sol, generally between Malaga and Marbella.
If you have suffered long bouts of feeling depressed, or maybe you never quite feel that you 'belong', this could be a reason to seek the expertise of a psychotherapist. Maybe you feel out-of-touch with who you are and lacking in direction or focus. All these feelings can activate physical illness.
To feel positive, energetic and at one with the world, is simply to accept who you are and being happy with yourself. Many things can block your natural energy flow, such as sorrow, anxiety, guilt, shame, fear and it may be that you need to revise the path you have taken and change your life. If you have lost direction, you may need help and guidance to get back on the right track - learn to trust in your own judgment and take responsibility for your own actions once again.
Many people are shy or embarrassed to consider seeking the help of a professional psychotherapist, feeling that it makes them out to be weak or even strange. Quite the reverse is true. Those people who embark on the voyage of self-discovery, are surely bigger and braver than the majority of those who simply sweep all their problems under the carpet.
A session with a psychotherapist will usually last 50 minutes once a week or perhaps once a fortnight. Although you don't have to be suffering from a specific condition, other than feeling at a loss in life, many people seek help when they suffer from depression, hyperventilation syndrome or chronic fatigue. Such symptoms are often enough to drive someone to be willing to learn about himself or herself, in order to find a way out of what is often self-imprisonment.
You will be guided to have more insight into your own thought patterns and to be aware of issues and situations that trigger reactions and set off old patterns. Recognition of inner stress factors will help you to learn how to diffuse otherwise upsetting situations. The more you unravel, the more sight you get of the positive power you have within you and how to use it. This process frees your natural potential and you come to trust yourself and your own judgment. This ultimately leads to a happier, healthier you.
Psychotherapy may not be for the faint hearted, but for those brave folk who take that step toward self-knowledge, the rewards are well worth the journey.
