What does my therapist’s approach actually mean?
Humanistic person-centered existential emotion-focused relational feminist trauma-informed therapist. What a mouthful! When I say that I work as a therapist, I don’t often get to unpack in my 30 second elevator spiel what that really means. If you’re unfamiliar with counselling or the training process of becoming a counsellor, in addition to a Master level graduate degree, many counsellors have received supplemental or specialized training in specific therapeutic modalities. There are hundreds of different approaches and protocols to therapy, many with their own certification process, as well as hundreds of thousands of books that also contribute to the understanding of psychology and human development. In the following few words, I will give a brief overview of what that mouthful of therapy jargon means to me and how those words shape the kind of therapist that I am and how that filters down to the practice of therapy in session.
Humanistic. This is an assumption that I carry about the fundamental goodness of human nature, which means that I believe that people are trying to do their best with what they’ve got. Humanistic therapists believe that people are positively oriented toward their own healing and are capable of growing and developing themselves. We also believe in human rights, dignity of the person, empathy, and equality and uphold these values in our practice.
Person-centered. While I may be the professional in the room, I don’t consider myself to be the expert on your life. Person-centered therapists provide compassion, non-judgment, and empathy to the client. The person is treated in a non-pathologizing way, with counselling themes and goals made in collaboration between the client and therapist. I don’t have an agenda for you; rather, I accompany you as a skilled guide on your journey of personal growth and development. We work towards reducing distress, while increasing self-esteem and openness to experience.
Existential. I am enrolled in and presently working toward a 5-year psychotherapy training program with the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis Vienna. The purpose of existentially-oriented therapy is to help a person find their inner ‘yes’ to their life – to be able to arrive at authentic, meaningful, free, and responsible decisions for which they give inner consent. The analysis and processing of emotions is seen as an integral part of understanding and relating to yourself and the circumstances that you face. This is usually done in conjunction with biographical work; the understanding and experiencing of one’s own life story. As an existentially oriented therapist and a fellow person, I don’t operate like a ‘blank slate’ where you can’t sense what I am feeling. You likely don’t know much about me and my story, but I engage in therapy with my clients actively as a person through my own experiencing of the client’s process within session. This may look like tears welling up in my eyes as I’m impacted by a part of your story, or me sharing with you how I experience you or your circumstance.
Emotion-focused. Emotions are seen as centrally important in human functioning and therapeutic change. An emotion-focused approach promotes emotional awareness, expression, regulation, understanding and transformation of emotion and the development of empathy as a path to health and well-being. An emotion-focused therapist does not prize emotions over cognition, but rather, sees them as being undistinguishably interwoven. This means that your therapist will aim to follow and guide your experiential processing of emotion in session in order to help you change problematic emotional states or unwanted self-experiences and create more access to yourself emotionally.
Relational. The research in counselling and psychotherapy indicates that upward of 70% of the change that occurs from the counselling process is due to the therapeutic relationship between the client and therapist – aside from all theory, intervention or anything else I may know. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that you feel comfortable and understood by the therapist you are with and can see yourself developing a trusting relationship with that person. Many of the hurts and wounds experienced in life happen in relationships (i.e. between partners, parents and children, friends and coworkers), which results in people feeling unsafe and lacking trust in their relationships or developing a negative self-concept. A trusting therapeutic relationship can be the starting place for someone to begin to feel safe again – to explore who they are, past hurts or traumas, and find healing. This relational healing then often spills over into life outside the counselling room.
Feminist. As a feminist therapist, I am aware of the various power and hierarchal dynamics that are at play in a person’s life and the systems they are a part of. Oppression and marginalization affect a person’s or group of peoples’ abilities to survive and thrive. The aim is to help clients feel empowered while also looking at themes of social-cultural transformation, nurturance of the self, establishing a strong self-concept, re-writing of oppressive narratives or standards, and restructuring or enhancing personal beliefs about identity.
Trauma-informed. Depending upon who you speak with, ‘trauma’ can mean many things. To me, from a psychological perspective, trauma means any negative, unexpected event that overwhelmed your ability to cope or left you feeling helpless. For many clients, this will mean that a series of big “T” or little “t” traumas may have significantly impacted their past, present, and possibly future. Of people who have experienced trauma, some will develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress, so it’s important to have a clinician that is trauma-informed to determine what stage of trauma treatment is best. There are three stages to trauma treatment: safety and stabilization, trauma processing, and integration. An attuned and skillful counsellor can help navigate these stages with you.
If you made it this far, thanks for listening! Next time you are looking for a therapist, ask them to describe what they mean by the words written on their Psychology Today profile or website and how those words inform their approach and treatment of clients.
Sincerely,
