Therapy, psycho analytic and psychodynamic, views

[OrlandaFuriosa]

i realise I've got a lot if childhood/ adolescent stuff that really I should work through. I'm wondering if I can do it by myself, and if so, how to do it, rather than having to see someone when actually I know what the theory is and also the issues. And I'm wondering if there is a good self help manual. And whether these approaches are the best.

Views?

[ItchyArmpits]

In the immediate future, writing about it might help. Set yourself a timer, for 15 - 30 minutes, get some paper and get started. I like to destroy the paper after I've finished. Sometimes it makes it easier to write things down, knowing that no one will ever read it. The writing is supposed to help with processing emotions.

www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/writing-about-emotions-may-ease-stress-and-trauma

I've had psychotherapy, though counselling rather than psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis isn't really evidence-based, as far as I know. That said, I think that the client-therapist relationship is really important - if you get the right therapist, it matters a lot more than if you go for a particular type of therapy.

I recently read a good self-help book - well, I thought it was. As I was going through it, it kept covering ideas that had come up during the course of therapy. But I don't think the self-help book could have had the impact that therapy has had. Some things you need an outside voice to help you* with.

*"you" here is a figure of speech. I can only talk about my own experiences - they are the only qualification I have in this topic.

[misscph1973]

I've seen a couple of psychologists short term, and both times I came to the same conclusion: You can't change the past. But you can change your future, if you live in the present.

My parents were in therapy leading up to their divorce. They got divorced, and my mum spent the next 10 years unable to let go of the past.

So my opinion is that you have to be really sure that you want to work through these things, as you could get stuck in your own past.

What has worked for me is EFT (it's crazy, but it does work, one of the psychologists I saw introduced me to it). It hasn't "fixed" me, but it has helped me calm down about the past and myself. Also a really simple thing like writing down 3 positive things from your day every evening before bed for a month. This made my cup half full rather than half empty, to use a cliché.