About integrative psychotherapy
None of us had a perfect childhood. The perfect childhood does not exist, just as there are no perfect parents. We ourselves will not be perfect parents for our own children.There were times, longer or shorter, more or less intense, when our parents or caregivers didn’t know, couldn’t or didn’t want to meet our needs, neglected or even abused us physically, verbally or emotionally.
When a child goes through situations of neglect or abuse, he has neither the cognitive ability to understand what is happening and to request the correction of the situation, nor the ability to emotionally manage the stress resulting from this situation.
This is how trauma occurs, an intersection between the difficult life situation and the child’s fragile psyche. Trauma produces blockages in development and splits of the psyche. Although biologically we grow up and reach the adult stage, from a psychological point of view, the maturation is incomplete, and the psyche is fractured.
Thus, in adult life, manifestations such as increased stress, difficulties in facing life’s challenges, anxiety or depression, phobias, somatizations, difficulties in managing impulses, difficulties in maintaining satisfactory social relationships, low self-esteem and self-knowledge, pathological behaviors or pathological personality structures occur.
Integrative psychotherapy is the process by which we reveal all the stories of our past, revisit our traumas and feel all the difficult emotions, this time with the adult psyche and in the presence of another caring adult, able to be present in our life, which is the therapist. In this process, we understand what we missed, we mourn what we lost, we accept and integrate our own life story.
In psychotherapy we become aware of our limiting beliefs, analyze them carefully and formulate new beliefs, adapted to reality. We increase our level of emotional and social intelligence, we become more aware of our own emotions, of the associated bodily sensations and we become more able to manage them. We also increase the ability to empathize with the emotions and needs of others, and thus we can build high-quality social relationships with other people.
Psychotherapy helps us to get to know ourselves, to understand our qualities and talents, to find ways to put them to work, to make the best choices for our lives, to become capable of action and to create our best life possible. It also helps us to understand our flaws and weaknesses, how to mitigate them or reduce their impact, thus eliminating the blockages to a life full of achievements and joy. Therefore, through therapy we get to know, accept and love ourselves and create the best life possible!
Integrative psychotherapy is the fourth and last school in psychotherapy, which integrates theoretical and technical elements from all other therapeutic schools. I myself work with psychodynamic processes that emphasize the healing of childhood trauma and the realization of insight, cognitive processes in which we bring to light and reformulate limiting beliefs, hypnotic trances in which we access the unconscious, transactional analysis techniques of negotiating with different psychic instances, mindfulness techniques, etc.
Beyond all the techniques used, what is essential in integrative therapy is the relationship between therapist and client. Just as emotional trauma occurs when the relationship between child and parent fails, healing can only occur within a healthy relationship with a balanced and emotionally mature adult, who can contain the client’s feelings and experiences.
I am looking forward to meet you in my office, live or online!
