Robert Pringle

Often we experience emotional difficulties, troubling thoughts, and problem behaviours we find hard to understand or control. It is usually difficult to discuss these with others, even those close to us.

The challenge of working together in a therapy is to understand the dynamic that underlies these difficulties. This occurs through the exploration of difficult thoughts and feelings, together with their acceptance and containment in the therapy session. This occurs through linking past and present experiences, seeing relationships between events and reactions, and identifying repeating patterns of behaviours.

It is often a pervasive belief about oneself and others that drives our experience. Recognising and accepting how we are driven by these beliefs is integral to positive change. With this insight, a shift in the way we feel about ourself occurs. This is usually quite subtle.

In working with clients, I have found that developing a more cohesive sense of self, focussing on the capacity to process thoughts and feelings is beneficial. This involves knowing and accepting your vulnerabilities and sensitivities, along with inner dialogue and self-validation. With a greater capacity to self-reflect, re-appraise, apply knowledge of context and perspective, you become more flexible in attitude, belief, and response – in a sense you become more integrated.