The Purpose of Psychotherapy

What is the purpose of psychotherapy.  Some people enter therapy with the expectation that their therapist will give them answers.  Others imagine that the therapist’s job is to tell them if they are right or wrong in their assessment of a particular situation.  I want to suggest that the real goal is less apparent yet more profound.  The psychoanalyst Michael Basch once said that ants don’t need therapists - people do.The reason is that an ant or any simple creature comes into this world preprogramed with instincts that tell it how to deal with every situation it may encounter.  People on the other hand are born with very little knowledge and instinct plays a very small role in deciding how to live our lives.  The human world is a very complicated place and the knowledge that would serve someone well on the streets of Toronto would not be very helpful in the Sahara or the Arctic or on a dairy farm for that matter. That is one reason why we have such long childhoods so that we can learn the skills necessary to master the world that we live in.  Because we live in so many places we have to be the most flexible and adaptable of all creatures.   Our need to adapt has another dimension as well. As we grow our world changes. We take on new responsibilities and are faced with new challenges.  Going away to university, getting married, raising children, changing careers; each of these challenges require us to not only learn new skills but require us to adopt new roles which requires us to alter our sense of who we are. To be successful in life we must be capable of adapting to new roles and new situations.What happens to people who for some reason cannot adapt to change?  Sometimes people get stuck and this is where psychotherapy begins to play a role.  When someone comes to see a psychotherapist they’re often feeling stuck.  Life has changed in some significant way and they are having difficulty making a successful transition.  The therapist’s job is help they’re client to get unstuck so that they can get on with their life.  How does the therapist accomplish this?  Sometimes all a person needs is reassurance.  Sometimes it is just an opportunity to brainstorm with the therapist and sometimes the therapist may educate the client about an issue that is troubling the client.  At other times,  the work is a bit more involved and may require unlearning old ideas or habits which are not helpful.  Sometimes a person needs to begin to think about themselves differently before they can feel enough confidence to move forward in life.  This is the purpose of psychotherapy.