Supportive Psychotherapy
As the name suggests, supportive psychotherapy aims to support therapy clients in a variety of ways. Rather than attempt to provide elegant interpretations to previously unconscious conflicts, explore the impact of childhood wounds, or change deeply-ingrained maladaptive beliefs about yourself or the world, supportive psychotherapy is geared towards more basic and straightforward therapeutic goals.
Essentially, one of the primary goals of supportive psychotherapy is to strengthen your ability to cope effectively with various life stressors. We accomplish this in several different ways, which include:
- Listening closely and actively
- Showing genuine empathy
- Helping clients have a better understanding of their current situation
- Helping them explore the options available to them
- Helping them find hope despite difficult circumstances
- Reinforcing and strengthening their resilience to the challenges they face
- Maintaining or building up their self-esteem
- Encouraging them to share their feelings and thought
Supportive psychotherapy is also intended to help you increase your ability to adapt to various situations. Being inflexible and incapable of adapting to change or other common life challenges is a trait that doesn't bode well for anyone. It's one that becomes even more problematic when faced with a difficult situation or mental health issues. Like most forms of psychotherapy, supportive psychotherapy is also geared towards reducing or alleviating symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other disorders.
Supportive psychotherapy can be helpful to a wide range of clients. However, it is especially ideal for the following types of individuals:
- Those who are focused on surviving as opposed to self-actualizing (e.g. individuals with a chronic physical or mental illness and limited financial resources who are just trying to get through each day)
- Individuals who are going through an acute crisis in their lives and doing their best to simply get through it
- Individuals who currently lack a solid support system and are struggling to cope with a challenging situation
