The Nature of Psychotherapy

The overall aim of psychotherapy* is to provide an opportunity for the client to work towards living in a more satisfying and resourceful way. The term 'psychotherapy' includes work with individuals, pairs or groups of people referred to as 'clients'. The objectives of particular psychotherapeutic relationships will vary according to the client's needs. Psychotherapy may be concerned with developmental issues, addressing and resolving specific problems, making decisions, coping with crisis, developing personal insight, awareness and knowledge, working through feelings of inner conflict and improving relationships with others.

The psychotherapist's role is to facilitate the client's work in ways which respect the client's values, personal resources and capacity for self determination, without discrimination on the basis of culture, race, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender or physical ability. Psychotherapy is a non-exploitative activity. Its basic values are integrity, impartiality and respect. Trainees and supervisees should take the same degree of care to work ethically whether the psychotherapy is paid or voluntary.


*Extracts from Spectrum Code of Ethics and Practice for Trainees and Supervisees

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Many of the paintings used on this site are taken from the work of Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz in Russia in 1903 to a Lithuanian Jewish father and a Prussian Jewish mother. He worked with colour relationships to imbue his paintings with the tragedy of the human condition. He wrote, 'The most important tool the artist fashions through constant practice is faith in his ability to produce miracles when they are needed. [For the artist, the picture must be] as for anyone experiencing it later, a revelation, an unexpected and unprecedented resolution of an entirely familiar need.'