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Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.
CARL JUNG (1875-1961)
HOW DOES TALK THERAPY WORK?
There is a writers’ saying: “How can I know what I think until I see what I say?” This is called shaping at the point of utterance. This principle applies powerfully to psychotherapy. Discussing your thoughts, feelings, emotions, conflicts and problems with another person is usually of great help. If that person is caring, professionally trained, smart, sensitive and objective, then talking with that person and exploring your difficulties and concerns can be of tremendous assistance.
Airing your thinking aloud with a professional, focused, detached and yet compassionate second ear, can help you to unpack your emotions, rethink chronic problems and worries, and live more consciously. It can give you clarity and allow you to see things in a new light. The next time you find yourself depressed; anxious; creatively blocked; in conflict with your mate or family or children; or engaging in an unhealthy behavior like reaching for a drink, fattening food, or a drug, you may be better able to comprehend why you are driven to do so, and make conscious some connections that were previously unconscious. What just happened to trigger the feeling or behavior? Why did it happen then? And most important: must it always happen like that or can you do something to prevent such deleterious behaviors from recurring?
Self-awareness and understanding are the necessary first steps to turning injurious behaviors around. Real change can only follow self-understanding. And it is such genuine
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