It all goes back to childhood…So, now what?

Many of us come into psychotherapy with an understanding that what is happening in our lives today has something to do with what happened in the past. ‘It goes back to childhood’ we hear the therapist say…something, that without question will have a lot of truth, but can be difficult to hear and leave us feeling a bit helpless.

We are, without doubt, affected by the dynamics of the family we grew up in, but understanding how these dynamics are at play in life today in our thoughts, patterns of behaviour and ways of relating, can be life-changing. It can be easy to rationalise…well our parents were imperfect humans just as we are, but that doesn’t help unpick or change much does it? Psychodynamic therapy can be helpful to look at how our early life experience, attachment patterns and family relationships can affect life today…and in being aware of this, we can find more adaptive, more effective ways of doing things in the present.