Psychotherapy is a form of treatment for disorders within oneself, in relationships and other areas such as work, creativity, sexuality and the ability to achieve one’s goals. At the same time psychotherapy is more than treatment. This is because quick fixes or technical solutions rarely work in sufficient depth to last beyond the present mood. So, while psychotherapy aims to make a positive difference in the short term, therapy also needs to be effective in ways that go beyond the current situation.
Often we notice that the nature of our personal difficulties is repetitive. Similar issues arise time and again in different contexts and relationships. The causes are often complex but may well arise from aspects of our emotional development that have become blocked or arrested. When emotional development is appropriate to our age or stage of life we call it maturity. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy therefore is also deliberately a development process over time for these reasons. Therapy aims to uncover and address whatever has gotten in the way of development. Ideally, the therapeutic process releases areas of development and thereby dismantles the conditions that lead to recurring problems, issues and limitations.
