Psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Truro, Cornwall
People come to therapy for many different reasons. Sometimes there is a clear difficulty: anxiety, depression, loss, trauma, relationship problems, work stress, or a period of crisis. At other times, the problem is harder to name. You may feel stuck, dissatisfied, overwhelmed, disconnected from yourself or others, or caught in patterns that seem to repeat despite your best efforts to change them.
Therapy offers a space to speak about these difficulties in a careful and sustained way. It is not necessary to know exactly what is wrong before beginning. Often, part of the work is discovering what the problem is, how it has taken shape, and what it may be connected to.
What is psychoanalytic psychotherapy?
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is based on the idea that our lives are shaped not only by conscious thoughts and choices, but also by unconscious feelings, conflicts, memories and patterns of relating. These can affect how we experience ourselves, how we relate to others, and how we respond to love, loss, authority, intimacy, separation, success, failure and change.
Unlike some shorter-term approaches, psychoanalytic psychotherapy is not mainly focused on advice, techniques or quick solutions. It is a process of speaking and listening that allows hidden or difficult aspects of experience to become clearer over time. This can make it possible to understand why certain patterns repeat, why particular situations feel so painful, and why change can be both desired and resisted.
The aim is not to impose an explanation, but to create the conditions in which something can be thought about differently.
What can therapy help with?
Therapy may be helpful if you are struggling with:
Anxiety, panic or persistent worry
Depression, low mood or loss of meaning
Relationship difficulties
Repeated patterns in love, work or family life
Bereavement, separation or major life changes
Trauma or painful experiences from the past
Shame, guilt, anger or emotional inhibition
Questions around identity, sexuality, creativity or direction
A sense of being stuck, empty or unable to move forward
Some people begin therapy because something has become unbearable. Others come because they want to understand themselves more deeply. There is no single right reason to start.
What happens in sessions?
Sessions provide a confidential space in which you can speak as openly as possible about whatever is on your mind. This might include current difficulties, memories, dreams, relationships, bodily feelings, fantasies, fears, silences, or thoughts that seem unclear or difficult to say.
My role is to listen carefully and to help us think about what may be emerging in what you bring. This includes paying attention not only to the content of what is said, but also to repetitions, contradictions, emotional shifts, and the relationship that develops between us in the work.
Therapy can sometimes feel relieving. It can also be unsettling or emotionally demanding. Speaking about painful things, or beginning to recognise familiar patterns, may bring up feelings that are difficult. This does not mean the work is going wrong. Often, it is part of the process by which something previously avoided, defended against or unspoken can begin to be understood.
Frequency and length of sessions
Individual psychotherapy sessions last 50 minutes.
I usually meet with people once weekly, at the same time each week. In some circumstances, more frequent sessions may be appropriate, and this can be discussed.
Regularity is important because therapy depends on continuity. Meeting at a consistent time helps create a frame in which difficult or complex material can gradually be spoken about and worked through.
Confidentiality
Therapy is confidential. What you bring to sessions is treated with care and respect.
There are limited exceptions to confidentiality, for example if there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else, or where disclosure is required by law. These limits can be discussed in the initial consultation, and I aim to be clear about them from the beginning.
Like other psychotherapists, I also make use of professional supervision. This is a confidential professional setting in which therapists reflect on their clinical work in order to practise safely and thoughtfully.
Beginning therapy
The first step is usually an initial consultation. This gives us a chance to think together about what brings you to therapy, whether I may be able to help, and what working together might involve.
You do not need to prepare anything in advance. It is enough to begin with what feels most pressing, or simply with the fact that you are considering therapy.
If we decide to continue, we would agree a regular session time and begin from there.