BLOG WRITTEN BY PSYCHOANALYST LONDON.
There is a tendency to believe that people cannot benefit from psychotherapy unless they are clinically ill. Nothing could be further from the truth. You don’t have to be sick to benefit from therapy. You do not have to be clinically depressed to reap benefits from spending time with a psychotherapist.
At my psychotherapy practice in London, I work with patients who would not be classified by psychiatrists or psychologists as mentally ill. Rather, they are just having trouble navigating significant life changes. I help them work through their difficulties by exploring different ways of thinking.
Though this is by no means an exhaustive list, here are five life changes psychoanalysis could help you navigate:
1. The Death of a Loved One
All of us lose loved ones. Death is a normal part of life. But for some people, navigating the death of a loved one proves extremely challenging. An overwhelming sense of loss can lead to feelings of hopelessness and despair. In some cases, people can begin to wonder how they will manage to go on without the lost person still in their lives.
Psychoanalysis approaches death from a different perspective. It seeks to embrace the natural event that is death and help those affected by it to build something new. It is not a matter of forgetting the one who was lost, but a matter of building something new in that person’s absence.
2. Relationship Breakups
These days, psychoanalysis is being used more often to help people struggling with relationship breakups. Divorces and separations are at the top of the list. Likewise, psychoanalysis is helpful for navigating marriage problems, parenting problems, etc. – before they lead to breakup.
Difficult relationships almost always require a new way of thinking. Otherwise, already established thought patterns only exacerbate the problems.
Online dating brings with it new challenges. Searching for love and finding a healthy relationship can be a long process. Psychoanalysis helps you live love relationships with joy and without anxiety.
3. Work and Career Changes
I sometimes see patients in my London clinic who are having a challenging time with work and career anxiety. One patient may be fresh out of university and feeling anxious about launching his career. Feeling he is already late. Another might be in the second decade of employment in the same job, but frustrated in the company and thinking about doing something else.
Anxiety related to work and careers is very real. It is even more prevalent today: society, social media, preset ideas … demand more from us than ever before. Thankfully, psychotherapy can help patients develop a new perspective on work and career, a perspective that reduces anxiety and increases joy as we could have never thought before.
4. Pending Retirement
A natural extension of work and career changes is pending retirement. It is not uncommon for soon-to-be pensioners to wonder how they are going to make it financially. Fear of not being able to pay one’s bills can be stifling. Likewise, not being able to continue enjoying one’s current lifestyle can leave a pensioner wondering what the future holds. Society underestimates old people and hence old people, underestimates themselves.
Our life might have been amazing but… that life might not work for old age. That is why when we grow older, transforming ourselves is key to continue being alive. Psychoanalysis helps you in that transformation: “To reach very old age, you need a bit of money, a lot of love, continue working and… in order not to die, old people need to be desire”.
5. Long-Distance Moves
Moving house is fairly routine when it doesn’t involve a long-distance relocation. On the other hand, long-distance moves can be terribly frightening. Moving to the other side of the country can be difficult enough, but moving to a new country can be even more daunting.
Once again, psychotherapy encourages a new way of thinking. It encourages a person to embrace their new life elsewhere rather than holding onto the life being left behind. Being able to substitute is a Key mental health indicator.
I am continually fascinated by how people who are not clinically ill can benefit from psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. What I do can help you navigate the life changes you will inevitably experience. Indeed, that’s why I do what I do. Through my training and personal experience, I help patients navigate tough times and emerge from them better off for it. Contact me today to see how I can help you.
