PHILOSOPHY AND THEORETICAL ORIENTATION

The starting point is the observation that many psychological problems are either the result of a learnt pattern or of pressures and/or deficits in a person’s psychological environment.

These learnt patterns are often the best adaptation a person could  find in the past / or in childhood – and thus a person may continue to use them – often out of awareness. However, these same patterns may no longer work in the present situation, and  thus a person gets stuck and  seeks help.

This view emanates, amongst other things, from mainstream psychological theories, as well as eg from Transactional Analysis and  Humanistic Psychology.  

Psychologists  and psychotherapists belonging to this ‘school’ of thought tend not to think eg that people ‘have’ depression  or ‘anxiety disorder’. Instead they think these people ARE probably FEELING depressed or anxious for a variety of  reasons, which need to be understood – and, where possible - dealt with.

Thus Lilly’s approach is about offering help to clients to find solutions for themselves.  This  is  called ‘problem-solving therapy’ in Transactional Analysis, and  is quite a different approach philosophically to  offering psychological ‘treatment’. Here, therapy is viewed as ‘teamwork’, where both the client and  the therapist work together actively to solve problems which the client is struggling with.

The essence of this approach is perhaps the message that many people CAN change, and often profoundly so – if they are committed to this.