Interpersonal Therapy
Do you feel like the relationships in your life are a consistent area of concern? “I seem to always be managing conflict with someone, a family member, a friend, a colleague, etc” Do you feel like you tend to be a magnet for people with problems? “I feel like I am always trying to help others with their problems, but no one is ever there for me”. Do you ever look at the peace that others seem to have in their lives and long for that in yours? “I feel like I am constantly dealing with drama and I can’t figure out why?
Relationships are the driving force in people’s lives.
These connections start in infancy and follow us throughout our entire existence. If our relationships are in turmoil, we often are in turmoil and everything around us reflects this instability. These relationships can include various types of connections: familial, friendships, romantic relationships, professional relationships, and everything in between. Our interpersonal attachment with people can often set the tone for how we feel about ourselves, our self-confidence, or lack thereof. In short, our lives are built around relationships, and this can include the avoidance/fear of them for some individuals.
At Bridges to Wellness, we recognize the importance of healthy relationships with others, and we work with our clients to help them develop the types of relationships that they want.
Our Approach
We utilize different types of therapies such as Psychodynamic Therapy and Client-Centered therapy.
We connect with our clients on an emotional level using empathy, authenticity and providing a non-judgmental space.
We help them to identify where their relationships seem to be breaking down and we explore the reasons why their relationships might not look the way they’d like. We discuss creating boundaries cementing self-worth and confidence to know what type of treatment we want from the people in our lives.
Once our clients recognize how and why their relationships seem to be failing, they are able to implement various strategies.
These strategies help them be more honest in their relationships and to be clear about what they will and won’t accept from the people in their lives. Our clients begin to recognize the relationships that are worth putting energy into and they also see the ones that are not serving them any longer. This frees up our clients to engage with the people that they choose to have in their lives in ways that are healthier and more reciprocal.
You may believe therapy can help you but you still have questions about trauma therapy.
If all of my relationships have issues, aren’t I the person to blame aka the common denominator?
There is definitely something to this idea that if all of your relationships have issues, the issue may be YOU. We don’t dismiss this theory at all, but we take it a bit deeper than that to ask what is it that YOU are contributing to these relationships that may be adding fuel to the fire. We also figure out why you may be responding in the ways that you do and how often this is learned behavior from what we were taught early on, or from past experiences.
Will I lose connections with people in my life as a result of therapy?
If you do, they are most likely connections with people who were not contributing anything positive to your life. We like the mantra it is “Quality over Quantity”!
What if the relationships that I have the most trouble with are people in my family?
There is a belief, especially in families of color, that we have to take whatever treatment our family members dish out, simply because they are related to us. We challenge that notion and believe that sometimes family members can be the most problematic relationships in our lives. We expect unconditional love from them and that expectation often affords them the opportunity to treat others poorly. That ends when you say it does, no one deserves to stay in toxic/abusive relationships even if the person on the other side is a family member (yes this includes parents and siblings too!)!
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