Why Psychotherapy?

Each of us is unique and able to change.

People come to psychotherapy with a wide variety of issues and emotional difficulties they want to address. If you are considering beginning psychotherapy, you may or may not know what the problem is, or what is causing your distress or emotional pain.

…the human psyche, like human bones, is strongly inclined towards self-healing. The psychotherapist’s job, like that of the orthopaedic surgeon, is to provide the conditions in which self-healing can best take place. John Bowlby

The sorts of problems Bowlby Centre therapists have helped people with include:

  • Confusion about who you are, problems with identity
  • Impact of violence, abuse and trauma
  • Feeling afraid, panicky and stressed
  • Impact of racism, oppression, discrimination, exploitation
  • Experiencing anxiety, depression or suicidal feelings
  • Feeling held back or stuck in your life
  • Addictions, phobias and obsessions, eating problems, self-harm
  • Feeling empty, lonely, abandoned, unable to make lasting relationships
  • Impact of homophobia
  • Loss, bereavement, relationship breakdown
  • Problems around sex or sexuality
  • Difficulties in family relationships
  • Problems related to disability or learning disability
  • Feeling in crisis or in a state of breakdown

Attachment-based psychodynamic psychotherapy

Attachment-based psychotherapy has at its core an understanding of the importance of relationships to human growth and development throughout life. Secure and supportive relationships enable us to develop a sense of who we are. When we feel alone, or relationships go wrong in childhood or adulthood, our ability to manage our lives may be disrupted or even thrown into crisis.

We see psychotherapy as a co-operative venture between psychotherapist and client. Secure boundaries and confidentiality provide a safe setting that can enable clients to share experiences and feelings that they may not have been able to talk about before. Long term healing of distress, anxiety or depression involves getting in touch with the underlying experiences and emotions to promote creative change in your life.

The growing attachment relationship with your psychotherapist will give you the opportunity to mourn past losses and to explore the impact of important relationships on your life – both current and past.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Sometimes we may find ourselves repeating patterns from the past or getting stuck in a lifestyle, relationships or behaviours which may not be helpful to us. A psychoanalytic approach is a method of communication which aims to bring into awareness those ways of being which are unconscious, deeply set and inclined to frustrating repetitions.

A psychoanalytic approach can help us to make sense of how we got to where we are now and to face some of the feelings and fears we may have hidden from ourselves.

john bowlbyAttachment-based Psychodynamic Psychotherapists

Our psychotherapists come from many different backgrounds and all have received a thorough training, either at the Bowlby Centre, or elsewhere, and are committed to the Bowlby Centre’s values. We respect and value differences in race, culture, disability, gender, sexuality, age, income and class.

The Bowlby Centre is a member of the Council for Psychoanalysis and Jungian Analysis (CPJA) College of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).

Our lovely detached building in Islington, is where our outreach and development activities, training courses and Blues Project are based. It provides a welcoming home in London for our work.