Answer these questions:
Do you feel you are generally navigating your life well?
Do feel you have the ability to solve your everyday problems?
Are your relationships generally stable and rewarding?
Do you feel good about yourself and what you’re accomplishing in life?
Are you generally happy and in a good mood?
Do you generally bounce back from difficulties fairly quickly?
Are you aware of what you feel and can make sense of your feelings?
Do you generally behave proactively rather than reactively?
If you answered yes to these questions, you are living quite competently and confidently, and don’t need in-depth psychotherapy or any psychotherapy. After all, competence and self-confidence are the measures of psychological well-being. On the other hand, if you answered “no” to any of the above questions, you might indeed benefit from depth psychotherapy to build your competence and self-worth.
There are two possible goals of psychotherapy; one is the reduction or removal of symptoms while the other is the deepening of self-understanding which leads to personal transformation and greater competency. In-depth psychotherapy or psychoanalysis improves your overall competency and self-esteem by transforming the way you perceive yourself, others, and the world.
As children develop, they unconsciously organize their experience in personally unique ways. The essential activity of the mind is to interpret experience and draw conclusions. These conclusions are called organizing principles. For the most part, they function unconsciously as they shape the way we see or perceive ourselves, others, and the world. They determine what we allow into our awareness and what we keep out of our awareness. They are the mental templates that determine how we react and make decisions. Perceptions create reality.
In a healthy home with parents who are emotionally attuned and present, a child develops organizing principles that allow him to grow into a competent and confident person. On the other hand, in a home that is not so healthy, a child is likely develop organizing principles based on a need to survive and protect himself from emotional pain. Such organizing principles will have a limiting, narrowing, and disruptive impact on the way the child and later the adult perceives and experiences life and will limit his competency.
For example, a child who grows up with a mom who is depressed and a father who is a workaholic may organize such an experience and draw the conclusion that people cannot be trusted to be there for me when I need them. Such an organizing principle will limit his ability to rely on others which is a necessary skill for developing competency in life. Another child who is constantly compared to his sibling who excels in most everything would likely conclude, “I’ll never be like her, why should I even try?” The organizing principle that would likely evolve is, “I’m a loser and will always be a loser.” With such an organizing principle, it is understandable that such a person will struggle greatly to become successful in life and feel competent..
In-depth psychotherapy promotes a deeper type of self-understanding by bringing to consciousness those pre-reflective organizing principles that negatively impact one’s sense of competency and self-worth. Once identified, these limiting perceptions can be explored and understood, revealing new possibilities for building competency and self-worth. Old self-defeating and limiting patterns of behavior give way to new options for self-enrichment and self-expansion. As one’s perspective changes and expands, one moves from a state of self-preservation to a state of self-expansion. And as one’s psychological horizons expand, one feels more alive and revitalized.. .
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