Presentation

Why do we sometimes feel bad about ourselves?

Everyone, at some point in their life, can feel that daily routines are more difficult for them to carry out, that the relationship with others or someone in particular is more complex for them, that things that they did not attach importance to worry them excessively, that previous habitual behaviors now become a problem. All this can happen due to the fact that we are human. The body has a certain degree of resistance to infectious agents, to organic deterioration, to environmental conditions, but when these exceed it, disease arrives. In the same way, the psyche has the capacity to deal with adversities, frustrations, fears, but when these are very intense, manifestations such as anxiety, depression, phobias, annoying thoughts, muscles tensions that cause pain, etc., which can be interpreted as the existence of something that disquiets us.

What to do when a symptom or psychological problem overtakes and dominates us?

Faced with our fears, frustrations, concerns or insecurities we can take three paths: to live subject to them, to want to get rid of them somehow, or to think that it is an opportunity to change aspects of ourselves.

My way of conceiving clinical psychology coincides with this third alternative, since I consider that behind all psychological discomfort is hidden a desire for change, which you need to be able to listen to and understand. Anxiety, phobias, psychosomatic symptoms that affect the body and all psychic symptoms in general, cannot be considered only as negative phenomena which have to be eliminated and removed but also as the unconscious expression of a complaint and a desire to live in a better way.

What is behind a symptom or psychological discomfort?

Speaking is the most natural action of the human being, what fundamentally differentiates us from the rest of the animals, as Aristotle very well pointed out. For this reason we have such a need to talk about the things that happen to us, especially if they are painful or affect us negatively. When we talk about them we feel a sense of relief and regain the strength and ability to move forward with our illusions and our lives. But if we cannot do it, the pain can get stuck inside us and that is when what we call a psychological symptom appears, such as anxiety, anxiety crisis, phobia of something, impotence, the feeling of continued sadness, dizziness and vertigo of psychosomatic origin, etc.

For this reason we affirm that a psychic symptom is not in itself the problem, but the signal that alerts us that some event in our life is causing us to suffer in silence.

In other words, when we do not look for or meet somebody to talk to and being understood by them, or even when we cannot reflect about something which disquiets us, the psychic symptom is in charge of speaking in the name of yourself. En effect, a psychic syndrome is a type of language, the way to communicate something when has not been possible to be expressed with words.

Based on this explanation, it is easy to understand what I can offer to the person who comes to consult: to listen to them and help them understand what is the meaning behind their discomfort.

What is the goal of psychotherapy or psychological treatment?

There are people who request tools to combat their suffering, strategies to keep it away, techniques to make it not affect them. Today, the Internet and self-help books offer all kinds of solutions to this demand, but their ineffectiveness is proof that each person is different and that events do not affect everyone in the same way. Each person and only they know what is the particular strategy they need to overcome their difficulties. The psychologist’s job is to help them discover it. Besides, not only does it succeed in controlling the suffering, growing stronger and moving away from it, but it also increases self esteem and self confidence because they are the ones that have achieved it.

Psychotherapy understood in this way is a process of discovery, an opportunity to rebuild one’s personality and strengthen the capacity for independence.

My work is focused on this objective: listening and helping to discover.