Clinical Psychology uses research, theory and techniques to study and understand individuals and their cases, to bring about change, relieving them of any distress and promoting wellbeing and overall development.
How does it work?
It all starts when you share information related to any problems you may be facing in life. These could be physical or behavioural problems, problems in your relationships with friends, family or colleagues, concerns about the way you feel about yourself, or something related to your past that continues to cause you distress. We start with a basic dialogue to understand your concerns better.
This will be followed up by one or more sessions during which we discuss your life history. This helps us understand things that may have shaped you and your psychological, emotional and overall development. This also helps us understand how you see the world and any impact it has or may have had on your current problems.
Once this foundation has been laid, we bring a clinician’s psychological knowledge and your life story together to develop your psychological formulation, which in turn helps us identify the areas we need to work on and select the best therapeutic approach for you. This may involve learning new skills or techniques that help you manage your symptoms. We try our best to create an experience that doesn’t negatively affect your life at present. This also involves talking about interactions with people over the recent past and exploring different ways of responding to them. This is just a glimpse of what therapy may feel like.
For descriptions of different approaches to therapy, click here.
Group therapy can be categorised into different types based on the nature of concerns a person has and the clinical method that needs to be used during the therapy. The most common types of group therapy are:
Interpersonal groups explore your interpersonal relationships, social interactions, the level of support you receive from others and the impact of these relationships on your mental health.
Skills development and psychoeducation groups focus on educating clients and improving skills in people who are experiencing psychological, emotional or relational difficulties.
Support groups provide a range of benefits to people experiencing psychological, emotional or relational issues as well as their families.
Most groups consist of three to four people, except for group therapy sessions that often involve 8 to 12 individuals with room for further additions if required. Groups usually meet once or twice a week with sessions lasting up to two hours.
Group therapy meetings can be open or closed. Open sessions welcome new participants, while closed sessions only include a core group of members.