So you want to try psychotherapy. But what does it actually do?

"Sam came into psychotherapy during a difficult period at work. He had started to feel as if he was stagnating in his role and it was getting him down. As he approached midlife he had reached a level of seniority that he had sought for years, but now he was starting to wonder whether this was it. He wasn't sure exactly what the matter was: he didn't feel especially depressed, just somehow stuck."

"Psychotherapy occupies an increasingly central place in our culture. Just as we have become inclined to understand our struggles and our sadness under the heading of mental health, so too we have placed ever greater authority on psychotherapists to help us understand how we should deal with the problems life throws up. Even those without diagnoses of depression, anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder increasingly seek therapeutic support, with a recent survey finding that around a third of the population have done so."

Sam entered psychotherapy during a difficult work period, feeling stalled in a senior role and uncertain rather than clinically depressed. He experienced a sense of stagnation and hesitation about seeking help without an obvious disorder. Psychotherapy has become central culturally, with many people understanding struggles through mental-health frameworks and placing authority on therapists. Substantial numbers without diagnoses seek therapy; around a third report having done so. Psychotherapy comprises multiple competing schools—psychoanalysis, CBT, existential, acceptance and commitment therapy—each with distinct terminology and assumptions about human nature. Researchers sometimes use formal trials comparing therapies to see which reduce distress on numerical scales.

Read at www.theguardian.com