From a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist in Vancouver, Yaletown at An Elegant Mind Counselling Clinic.
Almost everybody wonders at some point in their life, “Do I need therapy?” It can be confusing to know whether what you’re feeling right now is a temporary difficulty or something more complicated that might be helpful to work through.
If you’re unsure, this blog post outlines some experiences that psychotherapy can help with.
Feeling Stuck and Not Knowing Why
People often feel stuck due to setbacks in their work or personal life. However, some people feel perpetually stuck—unable to live as freely or spontaneously as they once were.
The reasons for this ongoing sense of “stuckness” can be many. It may involve the difficult grieving of a lost loved one, or a major life event such as a relationship breakup or having a child. At other times, it may not seem connected to any clear event at all. Regardless, it can be hard to identify what exactly is keeping us from progressing or living in the way we would like.
In psychotherapy, the goal is to understand what your particular stuckness feels like, when it emerged, and what may have intensified it. From there, we may discover new—uniquely yours—ways of freeing up your life emotionally and relationally, and fostering experiences you may have long been wishing for.
Repeating the Same Relationship Patterns
Some people book a free consultation for psychotherapy because they’ve noticed they keep falling into relationship patterns they are no longer happy with. This might include feeling drawn toward “toxic” partners, being unable to express emotions to your significant other, or sensing that your relationship is falling out of love.
There are many influences that shape our relational lives. Psychotherapy may focus on discussing your history, what things were like growing up, and how the relationships you’ve had throughout your life continue to shape and affect you, for better or worse. By understanding our relationships, past and present, we can begin to make sense of the pushes and pulls in our relational lives now. With these realizations, it may become easier to pursue relationships that feel more fulfilling, rather than disappointing. Exploring why early relationships matter can be a profound step toward this understanding.
If you recognize these patterns in your own life and feel ready to explore them in a safe, supportive space, you can book a session with Curtis today to begin your journey toward healthier connections.
Feeling Anxious and Overthinking
Do you feel anxious about small things? Or do you feel consistently stressed—like there is always something wrong or some obstacle ahead?
It may have felt this way for a long time, but it doesn’t necessarily have to continue.
As mentioned earlier, our early relationships shape us, and the environments we’ve lived in also influence the expectations we develop about the world. In cases of anxiety and overthinking, you may have grown up in emotionally volatile settings, or felt responsible for managing other people’s problems while pushing aside your own.
In psychotherapy, we may try to understand the sources of worry and panic, while also offering a different kind of experience. You may have space to connect with your body, or to simply “be with” another person—your psychotherapist. Sometimes it can be comforting not to do anything at all: to sit in the chair or lie on the couch, to close your eyes if you wish, and to breathe. The consulting room itself may become the beginning of discovering the peace you’ve wanted to feel for a long time. Rather than focusing on worries about the future, you may be able to attend to what it feels like to be you, here and now, and developing a new, more grounded, relationship to yourself. You can learn more about how psychoanalysis shapes emotions in our related article.
You’re Functioning, but Not Fulfilled
On the surface, you may appear to have it all together, yet privately you doubt that you do. You manage to cope with life, rather than truly enjoy it.
There can be a sense of living a double life—one on the surface, and one inside. Concealing parts of yourself becomes exhausting. The face you present to others feels unsatisfying, and something in you wants to desperately change.
Psychotherapy may be an important part of the solution you’ve been looking for. Together, we may come to understand how exhausting it has been to keep your head above water, what you want more of in your life, and how to enrich your life in ways that feel authentic to you. You may have felt you had to manage on your own, but with a psychotherapist, you don’t have to. Working together can bring you much needed relief and offer the beginning of a new, meaningful path forward.
You’re Curious and Want to Understand Yourself Better
You may want to connect with yourself more deeply—to feel what it’s like to be you more fully. You may want to discover long-hidden parts of yourself, to let go of certain patterns, and to experience more of what feels meaningful.
Psychotherapy, particularly psychodynamic psychotherapy, is well suited to this kind of exploration. I am a psychodynamic psychotherapist, trained in an approach that prioritizes questions such as: Who am I? Who do I want to be? What experiences shaped me, and how?
Through free association and, for some clients, working on the couch, people often find they are able to think and feel more deeply, and to access experiences that may have been pushed aside for a long time. In our work together, we’ll explore and finally integrate these experiences into your life. Over time, you may feel less captive to your past, more guided by your own values, and freer to pursue your interests. Gaining insight into what therapy looks like can demystify the process.
Do I Have to Know What I Want to Talk About?
Of course not.
You don’t need to know in advance what you want to discuss, and you don’t need to have a specific problem in mind to book a free consultation. Often, as we begin getting to know one another, certain themes naturally emerge. From there, session by session, we continue learning about you, developing a sense of comfort in your own skin, and fostering more enthusiasm for the life you’re choosing to live.
How to Start
If any part of this resonated with you, that’s enough reason to reach out.
To begin, you can book a free 20-minute consultation with me, Curtis. Here, we can talk about what may be on your mind, answer any questions you have, and see what working together might be like. From there, we can continue in whatever way feels right for you.
- I offer in-person psychodynamic psychotherapy in Vancouver, Yaletown, and online across BC.
Taking this first step can help you begin feeling better. Through understanding yourself and sharing your experiences with a psychotherapist, you may find it easier to navigate your life on your own terms—feeling more fulfilled, and more emotionally and relationally enriched.