Anti-oppressive practice in psychotherapy and counselling
Some reflections about inequality and oppression within our society, from [...]
Some reflections about inequality and oppression within our society, from [...]
Core Concepts in Psychotherapy : Containment In this series, registered [...]
It’s understandable you might feel anxious or nervous about your first meeting in a psychotherapist’s consulting room. However, remember that you are doing the hiring! The psychotherapist will greet you at the door, possibly with a handshake (just for the first session), and they will show you to a private consulting room and shut the door. Everything is held in a special atmosphere of openness, respect and confidentiality.
(Especially when it looks like he or she is just sitting there listening to you) A counsellor or psychotherapist is someone who makes the attempt to be present with you, and to listen to you. Perhaps this doesn’t found like much? In some ways it is a bit like asking what a mother or an artist is doing, when they appear to be doing nothing in particular, maybe just washing some dishes or gazing into space. The lines of this timeless poem by WB Yeats come to mind: