Most people, at some point in their lives, need help and therefore can benefit from individual psychotherapy. If it’s easy to understand that, when you have physical pain you go to the doctor to evaluate and treat it, it’s no different with psychological pain.

In most cases, people experience so many different problems for years that persist, despite continuous attempts to change some patterns. Asking for help is a sign of courage and a step towards enhancing your autonomy and satisfaction as a person.

In the first session the main focus is to gather history and context about you and your life. We begin by gathering meaningful information about your current life, main problems and complaints, and how they have and are still affecting you, your relationships and your general well-being. We will also explore childhood, family of origin, relationships, professional career and other areas that are meaningful to you. We end the session by, collaboratively, defining therapeutic goals that will be the motto for future sessions.

In typical weekly or fortnightly sessions, we usually start by obtaining information about what has happened since the last session and then establish an intention for the session (based on the therapeutic goals already defined). We will end the session with a summary of what was explored and worked on, and suggestions on how to apply these learnings between sessions.  Throughout time, we will monitor your progress and make the necessary readjustments until the therapeutic goals are achieved.

There is no specific timeframe, precisely because it is an individualized and unique process, which depends on your goals, the complexity of the situation, the severity of your complaints, your psychological profile, amongst other factors. Each person has different needs and preferences, which is why we need to define therapeutic goals together.

I can’t predict, but one thing is certain, the more you dedicate yourself to psychotherapy, the more results you will have and the faster you will feel better. Research reports that on average, more than half of people feel improvements between the 6th and 12th session. However, if there is high severity and complexity of symptoms, such as in trauma, psychotherapy may make you feel worse before you start to feel better.

For some people, individual psychotherapy is ongoing for an indefinite period of time, as it is part of their well-being and self-care “toolbox”, which is more aligned with a personal development approach.

Scientific research suggests that the person in psychotherapy has, on average, more significant improvements than 80% of the untreated sample. Furthermore, when compared with medication type treatments, it shows stronger therapeutic gains and longer lasting.

Individual psychotherapy provides psychological support, validation, life management skills, strategies to change some of your perspectives and behaviours. It brings more calmness and helps to tolerate difficult feelings and situations. Many people also report a “corrective emotional experience” as we create a safe, non-judgmental space where you can be authentic, which is deeply transformative and powerful.

My clients are always surprised by the help and transformation that psychotherapy has brought to their lives and they often say that everyone should benefit from it. I agree! It goes beyond reducing problems and symptoms… psychotherapy leads to new sustainable and healthy ways of relating to ourselves, others and life.