Psychotherapy

Trained to listen carefully and offer support in cases of distress, grief, stress and anxiety, psychotherapists treat many people with emotional and psychological problems. Therapists work by listening to you and talking with you about your exper­iences and relationships, so that you can gain insight into your problems. Gradually, you get closer to the roots of emotional difficul­ties that may be deep-seated.

Different psychotherapists employ differ­ent therapies, ranging from the warm and supportive to the more detached and analyti­cal. When choosing a therapist, it is impor­tant to find out which technique he or she offers. Some of the most popular are behav­ioral therapy (which helps you to 'unlearn' problem behavior or habits), group therapy (in which you share your problems with a group of other patients), neurolinguistic programming, or NLP (which works with the way personal experiences influence your perceptions), and gestalt therapy (which makes you more aware of such behavior as body language).

Depending on the type of therapy and the needs of the patient, psychotherapy may be short-term or may require a large number of sessions over months or even years. After a course of therapy, you should be able to con­front and overcome your difficulties.