What is Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy is an applied science for helping people overcome psychological or emotional issues through a relationship aimed at supporting personal growth and insight.

Psychotherapy is practiced primarily by counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists, each of whom integrate ideas and techniques from several branches of theory to develop their own style and emphasis, which they adapt to suit the needs of the people they work with.

The origin of psychotherapy is the field of psychoanalysis, which emerged in the early part of the twentieth century, and profoundly influenced mental health care with a few key discoveries.

Perhaps the most important of these was that when it comes to how people think, feel and act, many determining factors are ‘unconscious’. In the words of the poet John O’Donohue, “so much of what delights and troubles you, happens on a surface you take for ground.”

Whether it’s choosing one path instead of another; one partner, career, dream or vice; so much depends on the influence of things in our psychology about which we are mostly unaware. All the memories, motivations, fears, hopes, desires and drives that move us every day.



The significance of this observation is impossible to understate. It means that when we are troubled by our choices, or when aspects of our experience are confusing or overwhelming, it helps to consider the underlying factors which provide context and perspective. Because this leads to more capacity for choice, understanding and self-acceptance.

Against this background, the field of psychotherapy has evolved to include many branches of theory and practice, informed be developments in our collective understanding.

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