Edward Corrigan PhD

Psychotherapy at its best should be a pleasure which doesn't mean that at times it cannot be painful and difficult, but with luck you're in the presence of someone who takes your questions and worries seriously, who listens carefully, and who has a well-developed capacity for concern, that is. for empathy. It can be a pleasure because if there's a good match between therapist and patient elements of trust expand the space...spontaneity is introduced in terms of the free flow of associations...free talk...which can lead to surprises which in turn can lead to different ways of thinking about oneself and others and one's history. Resistances, doubts and impasses are inevitable in any therapy, and they are vital and offer important clues to experiences past (or current) which are elusive, confusing and hidden from consciousness. This is the tricky bit.
In any family life there are unavoidable miss-alignments, losses, breakdowns which impinge upon us, discourage us but because of our undeniable will towards creating a fulfilling life we develop defenses, strategies or self-cures...that is, we try to cure ourselves of any painful miss-alignments and their consequences. The trouble with our own treatment strategies or self-cures is that they take on a life of their own: they interfere with a feeling of freedom, creativity and forward movement. So, one could think of an eating disorder, or withdrawal into self-sufficiency, obsessional preoccupations, persistent self-doubts and self-criticisms, as well as whole range of mood issues and all kinds of addictions as strategies or attempted self-cures which are originally meant to heal loss and various developmental breakdowns.
As a psychologist whose work is informed by psychoanalysis I keep this framework in the back of my mind. But at the same time when I sit down with a patient, I appreciate the power of the unconscious and the distinct and idiosyncratic nature of how we all imaginatively elaborate our experience in our associations, dreams, symptoms and choices of friends and partners, interests, music, what we read and study. With a little bit of luck, the right fit and timing psychotherapy can be a lively life enhancing experience.