I’m starting psychotherapy today

Health and Recovery
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On the evening my first session.
I’m a bit scared. I don’t know if it will truly be meaningful – but there are many things I want to work on within myself, and at the same time, I want to learn to love myself.

Psychiatrist/psychotherapist say it will be a long process – not just one or two years of therapy – but maybe that will only increase the chances of achieving real results.

The approach: psychodynamic psychotherapy.

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that sounds useful. I kinda wish I could do some too, I’m trying to do psychoanalysis on my own but because i’m not a professional and have no guidance it feels like i’m just alone and lost.

hope it works out for you

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@MisterApple For many years, I also tried to understand myself to some extent, doing a kind of self-psychoanalysis. There were good days — and there were days that didn’t feel very meaningful. That’s why I really wanted someone from the outside, someone with an outside perspective, to show me what is right and what is not… And the bonus was that the psychotherapist would be my long-time psychiatrist, who had always truly believed in me.

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Yeah that’s a good benefit of external direction. For me perssonally, it comes down to having hobbies to share with others, i feel. I don’t try to understand myself so much as I do try to make sure I’m neutral in feelings otherwise I always use music to chase mental highs and it’s not doing me much good :confused:

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Is psychotherapy also known as psychoanalysis?

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Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis are related but not the same:

  • Psychotherapy is a broad term that refers to a range of treatment methods used to help people with mental health problems, emotional challenges, and psychiatric disorders. It includes many different approaches, such as:
    • Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
    • Humanistic therapy
    • Interpersonal therapy
    • Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
    • Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapy
  • Psychoanalysis is a specific type of psychotherapy that originated with Sigmund Freud. It focuses on uncovering unconscious thoughts and feelings, often rooted in childhood, through techniques like free association, dream analysis, and exploration of defense mechanisms. It’s typically intensive, involving multiple sessions per week over several years.

In short, all psychoanalysis is psychotherapy, but not all psychotherapy is psychoanalysis.

I used chatGPT now :smiley:

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That’s good because I read in '“Schizophrenia for Dummies” that schizophrenics should not do psychoanalysis.

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