Have you recently been through a divorce? Are you feeling the impact of the divorce in ways that you didn't plan for? After my divorce, my kids and I went through several months where they were angry and I felt like a complete failure. It was almost a year before I decided to begin seeing a family therapist to help us get through such a difficult transitional time for the entire family. She was so understanding, compassionate and helpful. She helped us talk through our feelings and provided us with the tools that we needed to get through the most difficult time in our lives.
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If you suffer from extreme depression and are diagnosed with clinical depression, you may want to seek counseling services to help you cope with this mental illness and find ways to feel happier and better in life. Mental health counseling is a good option to look into, and your counselor may suggest using a technique known as psychodynamic therapy. This form of therapy can reveal issues you are struggling with that are located deep inside your mind. Here are a few things to understand about this common form of therapy used to treat people with clinical depression.
The principles of psychodynamic therapy
Every strategy used in counseling is based on specific principles. When it comes to psychodynamic therapy, the main principle is that a person's feelings, thoughts, and actions are based on hidden conflicts that are trapped in the person's unconscious mind. Because these thoughts are trapped, a person can feel extremely depressed yet have no idea why he or she feels this way.
The goal of psychodynamic therapy is to decipher what these issues are that are hiding deep in the mind. If these can be unlocked, the person might have a better chance of working through them as a way of solving the problem.
How it is done
The main way psychodynamic therapy is completed is through talking. A counselor will allow the person to talk about whatever he or she is thinking or feeling. As this is done, the counselor will look for repetitive ideas, thoughts, or feelings. The counselor will also look for repeated habits and patterns of the person. Through this, the counselor may be able to help the person find out what is causing the depression and negative thoughts.
When a person experiences traumatic events as a child or teenager, he or she may suppress these feelings. To avoid allowing the events to hurt them, the person will often develop defense strategies against them. These will help the person block the thoughts and deal with them. Unfortunately, defense strategies like this do not make the events go away, and they can often cause the events to develop into emotional or mental issues, including depression.
What it involves
Psychodynamic therapy is not something that will offer instant relief. In fact, it typically requires weekly visits for months. In some cases, it may require seeking help from a counselor for years. With dedication and consistency, you might be able to find relief for your depression through this form of counseling.
If you would like to learn more about psychodynamic therapy, contact a clinic that specializes in mental health counseling services. Click here for additional reading.
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