Psychotherapy and the Change Process
Have you been curious about therapy and wondering what it’s all about? Maybe you feel stuck, dissatisfied, exhausted, and like you’re needing a change. It might feel overwhelming to ponder–how do you even change or move towards the life you want? Therapy can act as a portal to peace, joy, and liberation, but what even is therapy, and how do we change as people?
What Is Psychotherapy?
Translated from Ancient Greek, psychotherapy comes from the roots psyche and therapeia. Psyche means breath, spirit, or soul, and therapeia means healing. Thus, psychotherapy quite literally means the healing of the soul. Therapy can help facilitate a change process in catalyzing shifts where people can start to see improvements in one or several areas in their life.
Psychotherapy is also an exchange of energy between the provider, in this case the therapist, and the client receiving therapy.
The Therapist’s Role
What role, then, does the therapist take in psychotherapy? Some may see therapists as healers, but while a therapist may aid in or guide the healing process, the inner work and healing of the soul are done by the client. Like cuts or scrapes on our bodies, we are self-healing. And while someone may help us wash out the debris or put a balm on the wound, our bodies and souls heal themselves.
Wounding often happens within relationships and that is where the healing can also take place. The therapist's role in soothing the suffering of the spirit is to listen non-judgmentally and with curiosity. Compassionate and reflective listening offers the client a relationally healing experience that can help facilitate the change the client is seeking.
The Change Process
Change is incremental and non-linear. Simply put, change takes time, especially when our habits and way of being are deeply ingrained in us. Change often also represents a loss and might require a grieving process, letting go of what was, standing in what is, and welcoming what has yet to come. While much easier to stick with what is, liberation might be on the other side of what’s to come.
The stages of change model, developed by psychologists James Prochaska and Carlo DiCelemente, offers a view into the process of change. Starting with precontemplation, in this stage, you might be unaware that there are issues, problems, or behaviors in your life worth changing. Moving to contemplation, this is you acknowledging the problem, but standing on the landing, looking at the stairs before you, wondering if you are ready to climb. While you may doubt your readiness to change, you are on the precipice of great awakening. Even just thinking about beginning the transformative process of therapy and having curiosity for what makes you feel, think, and behave the way you do takes immense courage.
Moving to preparation, here you are getting ready. Perhaps telling loved ones of your intentions to change a behavior or to start therapy. Perhaps planning to join a gym or stash your substances at someone else’s home. You are gearing up for the next step, which is action, where you are actively changing your behavior. After action, in the following maintenance stage, you may be getting used to your new routines, certainly a challenging place to be while the past modes of being are alluring and the future uncertainties are daunting.
Lastly, there may be a stage of relapse or a recycling of old patterns and behaviors. This does not erase or negate all of the incredible work you have done to get to where you are and is in fact a golden opportunity to learn more about yourself, your triggers and stressors, and what helps you feel grounded, present, and safe amidst the change process.
Healing Trauma in Therapy
While riding the waves of the change process, you may seek out therapy and feel more ready to delve into the complex world of your past traumas, big or small. Chronic and/or acute trauma breeds unpredictability, while regular therapy can create reliability, reassurance, and consistency. Therapy provides a safe space in a world that may feel incredibly unsafe and harmful. Past memories can haunt the present and the therapeutic space allows memories to resurface, to be reprocessed, and to integrate wholly into our souls so that you can move forward in a more present, aligned way.
Processing the past in therapy allows for an alchemical process to occur. The metabolization of distressing memories prevents the past from calcifying and hardening and becoming future stuck points that manifest as depression, anxiety, substance misuse, or other states that ail us. Different therapists use different modalities to help in this composting process, whether it be somatic work, EMDR, harm reduction, mindfulness, and more.
In therapy, we realize that we are not alone and we see that we have a well of wisdom within us. When we have a compassionate understanding for our own story and learn how to cope with the complexity and challenges in our lives, we can breathe a little easier, feel more lightness and less tension in our bodies, hearts and minds and can live a life that is more aligned with our truest desires, dreams, values, and nature. What you are seeking already exists within you.
If you’re curious about starting therapy and learning more about yourself, I am here for you wherever you are in the change process, ready to meet you where you are at.
References
Denning, P., & Little, J. (2017). Over the Influence: The Harm Reduction Guide to Controlling Your Drug and Alcohol Use. Guilford Press.
Psychotherapy (n.). Etymology. (2021, January 21). Retrieved from https://www.etymonline.com/word/psychotherapy