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Psychotherapy Techniques Articles by Mark Tyrrell

The therapeutic relationship is vital; rapport and listening skills help our clients no end. But there are plenty more useful psychotherapeutic strategies and techniques. This collection was created to present some ideas and techniques which perhaps you won’t be so familiar with and also presents more familiar strategies in what I hope are new and interesting ways. Here you’ll find such topics as ‘mirror therapy’ and strategies to help the self sabotaging clients and many more. Grab a cup of tea or coffee, relax and find ideas for therapy you can use straight away.

  • help-your-clients-name-their-feelings

    Why It’s Important to Help Your Clients Name Their Feelings

    “How does that make you feel?” is a clichéd therapy question that sort of sticks in my throat. It makes me feel… yucky. And yet it’s something I need to get over. Because when we face what is inside, recognize and name it, we become stronger and less afraid. By helping our clients recognize and […]

  • use-time-travel-to-maximize-client-motivation

    How to Use Time Travel to Maximize Client Motivation

    The brain needs a clear sense of where we need to go, not just where we don’t want to be. Beyond just creating a psychological template toward which a client can work, hypnotic age progression can provide many advantages in therapy. So how can you use hypnotic age progression with your clients?

  • overcome-hypochondria

    3 Curative Steps to Help Your Client’s Hypochondria

    Health anxiety or hypochondria, a pathological fear of illness or even a psychosomatic creation of symptoms, is not uncommon. In fact, health anxiety may even be increasing. So what causes chronic health anxiety? And how do we help the hypochondriacal client?

  • teaching-mindfulness

    Mindfulness for Pain Management

    People have been using hypnotic techniques such as mindfulness for centuries to help ease physical pain, but recent research shows that meditation actually changes the way pain signals are communicated in the brain. So how exactly can we use mindfulness meditation to help our pain clients?

  • self-sabotaging-client

    How to Heal the Self-Sabotaging Client

    Early learning – or should I say mislearning – can create a habit of self-sabotage to the point where things actually ‘going right’ may seem like a scary foreign land. So what are some basic strategies we can use to help the self-sabotaging client and avoid this self-fulfilling prophecy?

  • mirror-therapy-ct

    How to Use Mirror Therapy With Your Clients

    To gain some objectivity on ourselves – without the distorting effects of chronic hubris, pride, conceit, and narcissism and without disabling low self-esteem or undue sensations of inferiority – allows us to live more fully, more authentically. So how can we help our clients to do this?

  • help-those-with-acute-guilt-and-remorse

    How Can We Help Those with Acute Guilt and Remorse?

    This discussion from one of our monthly Q&As is about the chronic contrition, regret, remorse, and guilt of a 12-year-old boy with an almost monastic sense of needing to confess his ‘sins’.

  • help-clients-stop-taking-things-personally

    How to Help Clients Stop Taking Things Personally

    To take things personally when we’d be better off not to is to make things much harder for ourselves. So how can we help clients modify sensitivity and feel less threatened by perceived criticisms or slights?

  • utilize-depressed-clients-reality

    How to Use What Your Depressed Client Brings

    Clients bring into therapy their miseries and limitations. But they also bring their potential, past triumphs, interests, and incipient and past happinesses. We can utilize much of this, and we should – because this is the very material from which we can help our clients build happier lives.

  • spot-client-incongruence

    Three Perceptive Ways to Spot Client Incongruence

    Incongruence – seeming to be one thing while really being or feeling another – can blight relationships or even whole lives. People can sometimes be honest with you as far as they know, yet if you dig a little deeper there may be other things going on. So what signs can we look out for?