Therapy is a method for:

• improving self-esteem and self-understanding
• changing unhealthy coping mechanisms
• decreasing feelings of guilt and shame
• resolving conflicts with others
• developing/improving emotional regulation
• confronting the existential negatives: pain, illness, ageing, freedom, responsibility, death, and loss
• managing anxiety, compulsive thoughts, disordered eating and other issues
• increasing empathy and emotional sensitivity
• healing old wounds
• mental/emotional hygiene and “preventative maintenance”
• understanding confusing emotions and inexplicable reactions in both self and others

Therapy works by:

• providing a “pressure valve”
• increasing emotional tolerance
• decreasing vigilance and defensiveness
• increasing trust in self, others, and life itself
• increasing tolerance for ambiguity and unpredictability
• re-organizing and re-routing thought processes
• regulating emotional processes through empathic interaction
• integrating perception with reality
• establishing control over “automatic” responses
• increasing overall self-awareness
• increasing understanding of what motivates other people
• frank and honest discussion of difficult topics