Our Therapeutic Approach

Therapeutic Goals

Are you currently in crises, or experiencing major distress resulting from trauma, substance dependence or abuse? Do you feel that you are depressed or experiencing chronic melancholy? Are you anxious more than you want to be, or are you experiencing panic attacks? Do you feel that the relentless stress leaves you feeling burnt-out and it negatively impacts more than one area in your life? Do you feel suicidal or are you feeling overwhelmed by certain negative patterns of behaviour, chronic issues and recurring feelings? Do you sometimes feel like you have lost touch with reality, perhaps even seeing, hearing or experiencing things that you are not sure actually exist?

If so, then therapy is the way to go.

The My Therapy therapeutic interventions are designed to:

Provide;

  • Support
  • Guidance
  • Stimulation

Increase;

  • Self Knowledge
  • Your Understanding of Your Psychological Issues
  • Insight Into How Your Past May Impact Your Current Struggles
  • Your Resilience and Ability to Cope
  • Your Experience of Happiness in Intensity and Frequency
  • Your Sense of Purpose and Expectation of Your Future
  • Interpersonal Effectiveness and
  • Reality Perception,

Decrease;

  • Symptoms
  • Distress
  • Pain and
  • Confusion

Change;

  • Behaviour
  • Beliefs and
  • Possibly Personality (if and when necessary)

In short it is our intent to cultivate healthy thinking, feeling and behaviour in life, at work, in relationships and around your sexuality.

Healthy Thinking means;

  • being able to think logically
  • being able to sustain concentration
  • being able to recognise “cognitive distortions”
  • being able to question assumptions, values and beliefs
  • being able to look at issues from more than one perspective “flexible thinking”
  • being able to continue to think under stress and in intense emotional states
  • being able to put our thoughts into understandable language
  • being able to communicate effectively

Healthy Feeling means;

  • being able to know what you are feeling
  • being able to choose words to describe your feelings
  • being able to distinguish subtle shades of feelings and to label them
  • being able to recognise when you have more than one feeling at a time
  • being able to accept all of your feelings
  • being able to tolerate intense feelings without having to deny them or to overreact
  • being able to talk to others even when having strong feelings
  • being able to tolerate feelings in others and to recognise what they are
  • being able to distinguish between your feelings and the feelings of others

Healthy Behaving means

  • being able to choose effective behaviours even when under stress
  • being able to delay gratification
  • being able to build a repertoire of healthy lifestyle behaviours to you and those around you
  • being able to build consistency in our behaviour choices and choose with integrity
  • being able to refuse to participate in unhealthy behaviours, even when pressured
  • being able to try new things, to ‘get out of our comfort zone’
  • being able to “self start” – to initiate behaviour instead of waiting for an external cues
  • being able to handle conflict through use of effective interpersonal skills, including when under stress
  • being willing to learn skills as needed
  • being able to be quit and by yourself and not to always need to do something
  • being able to understand moderation and to regulate our choices
  • being able to make positive choices even when they involve emotional pain
  • being able to ask for help
  • being able to set limits and boundaries when appropriate
  • being able to engage in honest, self disclosing conversation
  • being able to be sexual if we so choose

The My Therapy Therapeutic Process

The  My Therapy therapeutic process starts with building rapport and trust in a setting of unconditional positive regard as defined by Carl Rogers. We will extract and co-define the presenting problem with you our client or patient and try to get into your world and truly understand and feel where you are coming from. We will define the problem or issue with you by discussing your history, analysing events and provide a first order “diagnosis”. It is our commitment that in each session we will provide you with a new skill to help you cope, manage your state and improve your life even if it is only incrementally. We will discuss and define what you want and need from therapy, that is your therapeutic goals.

In the sessions following we will deepen our understanding of your issues by using assessment tools and methods, mental status exams, medical exams (if required) and behavioural assessments. Most of all you will talk things through, work things through and do things in order to create healing and reach your specific therapeutic goals.

We will agree on the high level treatment strategy to follow in order to reach your therapeutic goals. The My Therapy therapist will use his or her training and expertise to determine which therapeutic base model is most suitable to your issues and from this base model make some adjustments by introducing secondary or supporting therapeutic models in an integrative fashion to achieve the best possible outcome for you.

Together we will follow the strategy and over time reach the goals you have set out to achieve before expanding the intervention to other or secondary goals.

At My Therapy we will protect you emotionally at the start and as you grow and become more resilient we will ensure that you gain emotional independence as soon as possible. We are behavioural scientists at heart and therefore only use scientifically proven interventions and measure your progress along the way.

My Therapy Therapies

Therapy Approaches, Models & Techniques

Depending on your issues, time availability and financial strength we make use of both Expressive Psychotherapy and Supportive Psychotherapy. The common success factor in all therapy is the therapeutic relationship. This is the primary reason why we are convinced that both psychotherapy approaches are valid and useful. The are not in our opinion polar opposites but exists on a continuum in there application and usefulness. The supportive approaches are well suited for people in crises, trauma and substance dependence and the expressive approaches for brief therapies.

Framework models that we prefer:

  • Humanistic
  • Existential
  • Eco-systemic

Baseline models that we use:

  • R-IBCT (Rational & Intimacy (Intimacy is Emotion Focussed) Based Couples Therapy)
  • IFS (Internal Family Systems) Therapy
  • AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy)
  • RBT (Rational Behaviour Therapy)
  • REBT (Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy)
  • CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy)
  • DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy)
  • Medical Hypno-analysis (Medical Hypnotherapy)
  • Object Relations Based Therapy
  • Family Systems Therapy
  • Universal Integralistic Sex Therapy
  • Intimacy Based Couples Counselling (See Counselling)
  • Van Wyk Love Application Theory

Supportive models are therapist dependent but include:

  • Transactional Analysis
  • Schema Therapy
  • Psycho-dynamic Approaches
  • Self Psychology
  • Gestalt Interventions

Session Structure

  • Session Structure for 1 hour sessions consist of 45 minutes therapy, 5 minutes consolidation & 10 minutes progress notes
  • Session Structure for 1.5 hour sessions consist of 75 minutes therapy, 5 minutes consolidation & 10 minutes progress notes.
  • Session Structure for 45 min sessions consist of 35 minutes therapy, 5 minutes consolidation & 5 minutes progress notes.
  • Session Structure for 30 min sessions consist of 25 minutes therapy & 5 minutes progress notes.