Credit: The School of Life

Repairs & Tune-ups for your mind

Think of your body, your bones and your flesh as your hardware. Important physiological tools for your survival.

Your thoughts, emotions, and feelings: this is your software. Your software controls your hardware, dictates your mood, and is responsible for your well-being. It’s important stuff. But your software may not always work as well as you’d like it to. Software issues cannot be resolved by telling the problem to go away, the way you would give your old television an occasional knock (and thereby revealing this author’s age…). Life happens, and you may not always have the necessary tools to rough it out. Or you may simply need the occasional tune up. This is psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy is understanding and dealing with your inner thoughts and emotions productively

with your psychologist, in a completely honest environment. Effective psychotherapy requires deep engagement and constant two-way feedback. And research shows that psychotherapy is most effective and helpful when an honest dialogue takes place between you and your psychologist.

The techniques a Clinical Psychologist employs during psychotherapy are developed over decades of research and involve more than unstructured conversing and listening. Clinical Psychologists assess, diagnose and provide therapy for individuals suffering from psychological distress and mental illness. They also perform psychometric testing such as IQ assessments for adults or kids.

How Psychologists Address Mental Disorders

Clinical Psychologists recognise behaviour or thought patterns objectively, more so than those closest to you, who may have stopped noticing, or perhaps not all. Your psychologist will be able to identify the next steps that you may face in your challenge, and offer coping strategies. Their observations may sound similar to what your family or friends may say, but an experienced psychologist using their clinical skills framing these conversation in a therapeutic setting will make a significant difference.

If your difficulties have been ongoing for some time, or would like preventive therapy before your difficulty becomes insurmountable, now is the time to seek help from a trained psychologist.