Individual Therapy for Relationship Issues

RTT Therapy uses Hypnosis to get you into a relaxed state of mind before the session begins. If the other person in the relationship has been causing you some stress lately, it might be much easier to relax when they are not in the room with you. 

It also means that you are not triggered by their emotional response or lack thereoff to important milestones in the session. The experience is authentically yours.

The main benefit of individual therapy as opposed to couples counselling or group therapy is that the other person’s interests need to be considered only when they affect yours. Your RTT Therapist can concentrate solely on your needs and desires, which can provide a sense of relief - to be able to consider how one feels about the situation in isolation from the other party’s feelings. 

This is especially helpful in situations involving emotional enmeshment, where one finds it hard to see their beliefs and wants as being separate from their partner/friend/family member. In those and many other situations, it is helpful to get some distance from the situation during the course of the therapy treatment, to be able to see the relationship for what it is. 

In couples therapy or family counselling sessions, a compromise often needs to be reached that suits all parties to some extent. In Individual Therapy a compromise only needs to be found if it best satisfies your personal interests

The goal of any individual therapy is to resolve the underlying issues in your psyche which are either causing or contributing to the relationship issues. You are free to explore your past and be completely honest with yourself in reviewing your contribution to the issue at hand without self-blame, knowing that you do not have to defend your position to your partner - in the session or outside of it.

Since the other party is not present, their effect on your well-being can be dissected and even criticised, if necessary, without causing an argument. The current relationship can then be seen through the prism of your aspirations and unique life experiences. The correlations to other relationships can be drawn, and similarities may be noticed between your partner and other characters in your life’s story, without making the other party feel like they’re ’just like’ someone else close to you.

In Julia’s case, for example, it became apparent that the reason she was tolerating the mistreatment from her ex, was because of previous parental abuse - an observation which could not have been made had her ex been present, as it might have felt like an attack on him

In situations where the other person in the relationship had been holding all the reins, it’s a relief to finally be able to take the matter into your own hands. It’s often really empowering to see your views, needs and desires as being equal to their views, needs and desires in significance, as opposed to being second best. 

Sometimes we want to forgive the other person for the hurt they’ve caused us without saying it to them - for our sake only, so that we no longer carry around the psychological burden of the hurtful events. Saying we forgive them in their presence, might imply that ‘they’re off the hook’, so they no longer have to do anything to remedy the situation. 

When we forgive them in our Individual session, and experience the relief associated with it, the partner/friend/relative would not need to know this; and could therefore still be expected to apologise and make amends if the situation so requires

You can change your mind, about what you want the outcome to be, without feeling like you’re breaking a promise to the other. 

The choices we make today could affect our life for years to come, even decades.

During the course of an RTT session it sometimes transpires that the current situation was chosen by the younger, less experienced version of the client. Or they might have been acting according to what they thought was expected of them, as opposed to listening to their gut feeling. 

As the layers of social conditioning are being peeled off throughout the session, it can become apparent that the current version of the client, sitting in the therapist chair, would not have chosen their current life situation, knowing everything they know now.  

In group or couples therapy, this realisation might be concealed by the client for fear of upsetting the others. In Individual Therapy the client can admit to this change of heart freely, which would allow the outcome of the therapy treatment to align with the client’s new course. 

Once healthy boundaries between you and the other have been established, their role in your life story has been unveiled, and an authentic life path has been discovered - only then is the other person in the relationship can be made aware of the final desired solution only, without any previous iterations. This means you communicating your needs to them in a clear and concise manner. This is the perfect time to bring their interests into the mix - when who you are and what you want has been arrived at independently of them.

This is exactly the difference between looking for a healthy compromise and enmeshment.

For the compromise to benefit both parties equally - they each have to work out their own ideal scenario that satisfies their needs, and then look for a solution that brings them both happiness.

In an emotional enmeshment situation, their needs appear to be so intertwined that instead of a genuine compromise, one of the parties sometimes ‘gives in’ to the other. Individual Therapy prevents this from happening.