Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is a form of treating mental disorders and difficulties with the use of psychological methods. Its main goal, apart from solving specific problems, is to improve the patient’s quality of life. Marsha Linehan, the founder of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, uses the phrase that in the process of psychotherapy a person is working on building a “life worth living”.

Psychotherapy can reduce or eliminate a wide variety of symptoms and difficulties. It is often helpful in resolving recurring life problems and crises, focusing on changing thinking patters and dysfunctional behaviour. Long-term effect is extremely important in psychotherapy – during the process, patients acquire the skills to prevent relapses and to solve their new problems.

Initial appointments with a psychotherapist focus on diagnosing patients’ difficulties. During 1-3 consultation meetings, the psychotherapist conducts a detailed interview, learns about the previous treatment history, creates, together with the patient, an initial conceptualization of the problem and sets therapy goals. The goals may later change during the therapy process. Initial stage ends with concluding an oral or written therapeutic contract that defines the principles of cooperation between the therapist and the patient.

During therapies, psychotherapists select both cognitive and behavioural methods that are most effective in treating specific problems. To do that, therapists use protocols, i.e. treatment procedures of scientifically proven effectiveness. The frequently used techniques include Socratic dialogue, questioning automatic thoughts, scaling, monitoring of thoughts and emotions, exposure, behavioural activation, and experiments. Each psychotherapy is structured – both the sessions and the therapy process follow a specific order.

The cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy is a time-limited therapy – it ends when the patient’s therapeutic goals are achieved. Its length depends on the nature of difficulties, therapy goals and the patient’s commitment. Psychotherapy also requires the patients to work on their own in between the sessions. CBT psychotherapy is based on a patient-therapist collaboration. It is important that patients participate voluntarily. In some cases, it is advisable to cooperate with a patient’s psychiatrist.

We offer individual psychotherapy for adults to treat the following problems: