Psychotherapy is a uniquely rewarding endeavor. It can be interesting, even exciting, to try on unfamiliar perspectives, to eliminate habits and attitudes that no longer serve you, and to learn to know and care about yourself in a very different manner. At the same time, to examine and reveal your inner world, to trust another to share in that process, to make the inherently difficult effort to change—these things require considerable courage and are possible only in an environment of empathy, respect, and confidentiality where the delicate balance between encouraging growth and respecting limits is thoughtfully attended to.

 

You are not a collection of symptoms, not a problem to be fixed, not an aberration to be re-shaped into normalcy. You are a whole person with strengths and weaknesses, hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, all meriting considered attention and worthy of full exploration. Therapy and psychoanalysis ought always be geared toward helping you—whether as an individual or a member of a couple—better understand yourself, find more satisfaction in your life, and become the person (or partnership) you would like to be.