Dr A Stephan MB ChB, MHPE, FRANZCP

Psychotherapy
Are you feeling dissatisfied or stuck in life?
Do you have problems with relationships?
Do you have low self-esteem?
Or do you keep repeating behaviour that you later regret?
Perhaps you are facing a tough life transition or have suffered a loss?
Maybe you feel dressed, stressed, anxious, or have health worries?
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These are some of the sorts of reasons people come to therapy. In psychotherapy, the focus is on looking inside and understanding yourself. Therapy helps people to overcome difficulties, to reduce their suffering and to grow.
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My Approach to Psychotherapy
The therapy I do is based mainly on psychodynamic models. My job as a therapist is to provide a safe space for you to explore your story and to deepen your understanding of yourself and the unconscious patterns that are keeping you stuck and contributing to your difficulties.
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How long will it take?
Depending on the focus, regular meetings can span from several months to years. Briefer therapy tends to focus on a specific current problem or a crisis, whereas longer therapy is more suitable for repeated patterns of behaviour rooted in early experience or past traumatic events. This can be an intense process often involving sensitive issues, which take their time to work through.
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Does therapy work?
The short answer is yes. Many studies have shown that psychodynamic treatment is very effective both generally and for specific conditions.
Longer-term psychodynamic psychotherapy, i.e. one year’s treatment or longer, is more effective than shorter forms of therapy for the treatment of more complex problems.
More good news is that well–being continues to improve for years after treatment has stopped.
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Some Evidence
If you are interested in more detail about the evidence supporting psychodynamic treatment and comparing it to other psychological treatments, read Jonathan Shedler's article, ‘The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy,' here.