Can Therapy Make You Selfish? Do you worry that having counselling might be indulgent or selfish? Do you fear that focusing on your own desires and needs might result in neglecting or hurting others? Lots of people who go into therapy have these fears. And…
"When someone is in therapy it can seem like self-absorption to those around them, but this is a necessary and temporary state. Regular, well-boundaried therapy ideally leads to people developing clearer awareness of themselves and how they relate to others.…
This week we have been tackling the question of whether, by encouraging us to focus on ourselves, therapy can make us selfish. We have suggested that in fact therapy promotes a ‘healthy selfishness’ which enables us to take better care…
Jane* had been married for 18 years, and came to therapy with marital difficulties. She had always tried to please her husband, but recently he had become frustrated and withdrawn. The more she tried to please him, the more distant…
Donald Winnicott, the famous paediatrician and psychoanalyst, coined the term ‘good-enough mother’ in 1953, and his thinking went on to become pivotal in understanding child development. If we are lucky as infants we will have had good-enough parenting; our primary…