Chronic Pain, Intimacy Issues Marriage & Couples Counselling
Chronic Pain, Intimacy Issues
Chronic pain brings hundreds of people to therapy every week. Many physical and psychological issues can cause chronic pain and it is important to rule out any medical causes and get treatment by speaking to a physician.
Some people experience chronic pain as the result of untreated emotional overwhelm, unexpressed anger, depression or grief. Symptoms of chronic pain typically include headaches; muscle tension, pain or fatigue; shooting nerve pains, and tension in the back, neck and shoulders.
Many people with chronic pain disorder are reluctant to explore the emotional causes of their pain for fear of being told that they are inventing the symptoms. However, true somaticizing is a very real condition in which the emotions are unable to leave the body.
Another reason why people are loathe to admit the emotional roots of their pain, is that they fear that there would be no medical cure. Chronic pain with an emotional root requires that they confront the emotions that have been hidden away, and this can be challenging.
Therapists and psychologists who do chronic pain therapy offer a confidential and safe environment in which people can explore pent-up emotions and as a result experience short term and long term relief. Symptoms caused by long term emotional build-up may require long-term treatment and due to the physical changes, some medical intervention and active physiotherapy is often very important as well.
If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who works with chronic pain you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.
Intimacy issues are common for people who fear vulnerability. Some people can become vulnerable in front of a few trusted friends, however, but when a relationship starts becoming too close, they feel suffocated. In this sense, the intimacy issues are seated in the fear of developing a deep and meaningful relationship with another person.
Two fears that are at the heart of intimacy issues, are the fear of abandonment (fearing the partner might leave them) and the fear of engulfment (fearing that they would lose themselves in a relationship), which sometimes co-exist. These fears, often rooted in childhood traumas, are often deeply entrenched in codependent adult relationships where they cause friction.
A therapist who works with people who have intimacy issues will first help you to learn to become comfortable with yourself and accept yourself for who you are. You will explore the complex past events that have created these intimacy issues and discover that those events don't have to cloud your present experiences.
This process is essential in discovering that rejection does not have to be a traumatic experience. Finally, you will learn how to set personal boundaries that will help you to avoid the fear of engulfment and to cope, should abandonment occur. While healing intimacy issues can be a challenging and somewhat painful task, the rewards are incredible.
If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who addresses intimacy issues, you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.
Marriage & Couples Counselling, Shame Counselling & Therapy
Marriage & Couples Counselling offers a wide range of approaches that incorporate a variety of models to work in different situations. Some of the most common approaches in couples counselling are Imago therapy, emotionally focussed therapy, and Gottman approach.
One of the first undertakings of marriage & couples counselling is to set goals for the therapy. Establishing healthy communication within the relationship is one of the key components in any of the approaches make up their union, because this is what helps couples to better understand one another and the patterns that Couples will be led to examine their communication styles and explore their attachment experiences. Healing past hurts and trauma is essential in building healthy future relationships.
If you are looking for a therapist who offers Marriage & Couples Counselling, please browse our list of practitioners below..
There are a variety of approaches to address the issue of shame. One of them is the Shame Resilience method is based on the research of Brené Brown, Ph.D. LMSW.
Shame Resilience is the developed ability to practice authenticity when we experience shame, to move through the experience without sacrificing our values, and to come out on the other side of the shame experience with more courage, compassion, and connection than we had going into it.
Shame Resilience is about moving from shame to empathy- the real antidote to shame. Self-compassion is also critically important, because when we’re able to be tender with ourselves in the midst of shame we’re more likely to reach out, connect and experience empathy.
Other approaches, like Complex Integration of Multiple Brain Systems (CIMBS) uses what is called a systems perspective that can address how an individual has learned to respond due to early trauma and or other developmental experiences.
Approaches to shame are not limited to the above. There are many other therapies that address feeling.
If you do contact a therapist regarding shame issues please make sure that you ask them about their training in this area and choose a therapist whose approach makes sense to you.
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