Liz Anderton
Counselling & Psychotherapy in Sutton Coldfield

Counselling and Psychotherapy

Who might benefit?

You might benefit if you, for example:

• persistently feel anxious or unable to cope
  
• persistently feel depressed, empty or sad
  
• have difficulty making or sustaining relationships or repeatedly become involved in unsatisfying or destructive relationships
  
• have difficulty in negotiating a change in your life such as divorce, bereavement, redundancy , retirement
  
• lack confidence or feel you underachieve
  
• feel that life is meaningless or you are permanently dissatisfied
  
• suffer from the effects of abuse whether emotional, physical or sexual
  
• have difficulty with food.

What is the difference between counselling and psychotherapy?

This is a much-debated topic and even those of us involved in the profession do not agree. As I see it
Counselling tends to focus on current, immediate, external situations that are likely to have arisen recently.
Psychotherapy is concerned with more deep-seated difficulties probably working on personality traits or patterns of behaviour you find yourself repeating over the years. It can be a very deep and intense process. You may see a psychotherapist more frequently than a counsellor. The training of a psychotherapist is longer and more intense that the training of a counsellor.



What can I hope to gain from psychotherapy?

• to develop a deeper understanding of yourself
  
• to develop a less critical, punishing or destructive relationship with yourself
  
• to improve your ability to make and maintain relationships with others
  
• to experience greater pleasure in your achievements and creativity
  
• to improve your ability to cope with anxiety and stress
  
• to feel less burdened and be more playful
  
• to feel you are developing your full potential
  

What is psychodynamic psychotherapy?

Psychodynamic thinking [or psychoanalytic as it is sometimes called] maintains that difficulties in our lives often persist because an event or situation in our current life evokes feelings from our past of which we may not be fully and consciously aware. To understand this we draw on the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. The more well-known thinkers include such people as Freud, Melanie Klein, Jung, Winnicott. We accept that human behaviour is shaped by conscious attitudes as well as unconscious processes. We also draw on an understanding of the development of a person's life from birth.

During therapy you will be encouraged to share and reflect on feelings, thoughts, desires, memories and dreams especially those that might be difficult to express elsewhere.