Considering to go to therapy?

If you feel that you have been unable to solve alonce your interpersonal relationship problems, life skills difficulties, repeatedly confronted with similar problems, then a psychologist can help you learn about the motives of your feelings, behavior, thoughts and complaints, symptoms. The better and deeper self-knowledge gained during therapy promotes life management, as well as the ability making decisions more freely, and consciously. ​
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​The following problems may indicate the need for therapeutic help:
  • anxiety disorders
    • generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
    • panic, phobia (social phobia, phobia simplex)
  • sleep disturbances
  • trauma-related problems
  • acute stress reaction and adjustment disorders (state of crisis)
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • mood disorders
    • depression, generalized, persistent sad mood, feeling depressed
  • Dissociative, conversion disorder
  • somatoform disorders, hypochondriasis
  • personality disorders (eg. borderline, narcissistic, compulsive, dependent)
  • Sexual and relationship problems
  • Problems related to sport performance (eg. disturbances in concentration, performance anxiety, fear of injury, etc.).

What will happen at your first therapy session?

Your first session with a therapist is primarily an information-gathering session for the therapist. He or she needs to learn a lot about you and your history in a short amount of time in order to properly evaluate your concerns and arrive at a possible diagnosis. Since diagnosis often helps guide treatment, it could be an important, but not necessary part of the process.
At the end of your first session, you and your therapist jointly describe the aim(s) of the therapy, and set an agreement about the boundaries of your working together, which includes the psychotherapeutic method applied, the frequency of the sessions (one, two or three days a week), the length of the therapy, and the way of payment.
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The first interview does not involve engagement. The therapist offers time for reflection.

If the nature of the problem does not require psychotherapy (eg. it concerns someone else) or because it cannot be treated with psychotherapy (ie. mainly dysfunctions with organic origin), then the first interview converts into counseling.

Forms of therapy

Counseling: if certain circumstances don't make it possible or necessery to start a psychotherapy, then consultation can be considered as an alternative. In the case of psychotherapeutic consultation, during a few number of sessions a well determined theme is in the scope, and the therapist helps you to view this problem in a new perspective. This form of therapy doen't have the aim of analyzing the deeper roots of the problem.
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When is counseling needed? For example, if
  • the problem brought by the client doesn't require treatment, but do require psychological help and understanding.
  • psychotherapy would be recommended, but the therapist doesn't assume the treatment with the method he is able to apply.
  • treatment of the client's relatives would be justified, but they don't take the therapy,
  • the therapist does not come into play because there is an existing relationship (conflict of interest) between the client and the therapist.​
Long-term, psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy: this method is recommended for personality problems affecting many parts of the lifestyle. During the therapy, the main focus is on emotions and their expression, the recognition of recurring themes, interpersonal relationships, therapeutic relationship, past experiences, as well as on acknowladging attempts that aim to avoid various parts of experiences. Self-knowledge gained during the therapy and the more comprehensive understanding of personality will help the conscious management of life, making decisions more freely. This therapy involves one or two sessions per week, and the end of the treatment is not decided in advance.
What is psychoanalytic psychotherapy? It suggests ways of psychotherapeutic interventions which are theoretically based on the methods and theory of psychoanalysis. This therapeutic approach emphasizes the relevance of childhood experiences in adult personality. In the course of one or two therapeutic sessions per week the patient sits in front of the therapist. The length of therapy is from a few months to several years.