My Approach
“But what if I should discover that the least amongst them all, the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all offenders, yeah, the very fiend himself, that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved.”
— C.G.Jung
Carl Jung believed that to overcome neurosis, we must accept our own darkness. If we refuse to accept our feelings and thoughts, we create psychological dissonance. This leads to us distancing ourselves from our true selves. This is how neurosis takes over our psyche. According to Jung, doctors must embrace their patients’ dark side if they want to help them. To help someone, we must accept them as they are, which is only possible if we have already seen and accepted ourselves as we are. In other words, we must be able to accept and show mercy towards our flaws and negative emotions. This requires us to have a deep respect for the facts, for ourselves, and for the riddle of our own lives. To accomplish this, we need to practice objectivity without prejudices. Also, we need to develop a deep understanding of ourselves by reflecting on our own troubled minds. Accepting oneself is difficult, but crucial, and helping others without accepting oneself is an unconscious fraud. Therefore, showing mercy to oneself is a critical component of Jung’s approach to overcoming neurosis and achieving personal wholeness.
Many of you may be wondering what a session with me looks like and how I work with clients.
I devote all my attention to influencing the client to think for themselves, which we achieve through collaborative work in which the client receives instructions to use questions and reframe their thoughts. My goal is to help the client fully accept themselves.
During the session, we focus on uncovering those thoughts that the client has alienated from themselves and work on recognizing, accepting, and integrating those thoughts with the client’s personality.
The psychoanalytic approach in therapy is focused on assessing the client’s stage of personal development, which aims to discover and unify them with repressive thoughts and emotions in their psyche that impede their normal functioning in everyday life.
My approach is client-centered, meaning that accepting the client with all their flaws and virtues is an important goal in psychotherapeutic work, as well as a prerequisite for their further progress. The fact is that we cannot provide the client with help or expect them to achieve change until the client feels accepted. This feeling that the client gets from the therapist is the basic tenet our psychotherapy addresses.
The goal of my therapy extends far beyond the surface level of symptom reduction and problem solving. It motivates a journey towards facilitating the client’s personal growth. Clients get the opportunity to be on a path towards reaching a state of profound acceptance, authenticity, and wholeness within themselves. Through this introspective process, they gradually develop an awareness and understanding of their inner world. This self-awareness serves as a catalyst for personal growth and empowers clients to make conscious choices aligned with their authentic selves.
The psychoanalytic approach is one tool that can be used to assess a client’s development across stages and work towards uncovering and uniting them with repressed thoughts and emotions that may be impacting their ability to function in their daily life. By helping the client become aware of these patterns and feelings, they can begin to understand them and take steps towards healing and growth.
In family therapy, I take on a unique role as an unbiased listener who helps facilitate communication between parties. Through this process, family members can learn to think for themselves and make their own decisions, while also gaining a greater understanding of each other’s perspectives. Over time, this can lead to a greater sense of harmony and connection within the family unit.
Finally, in couples therapy, the focus is on helping partners understand and appreciate their differences. By working through conflicts and learning to communicate effectively, couples can build a stronger, more resilient relationship that is based on mutual respect and understanding. Ultimately, therapy can help individuals and families create more fulfilling and meaningful lives, as they learn to embrace their own unique experiences and perspectives.
“No one can bring this about by mere words; it comes only through reflection and through the doctor’s attitude towards himself and his own dark side. If the doctor wants to guide another, or even accompany him a step of the way, he must feel with that person’s psyche. He never feels it when he passes judgment. Whether he puts his judgments into words or keeps them to himself makes not the slightest difference.”
— C.G.Jung