Maybe you’ve been to therapy before, or maybe this is your first time. Therapy is a dedicated space where you receive the full, attentive presence of a caring therapist. It is a place to slow down, to speak freely, and to be deeply listened to—often in ways that don’t happen elsewhere in life.

For many people, therapy becomes the first—or only—place where they feel truly heard and understood. That experience alone can be profoundly meaningful, and for some, it can change everything.

When thinking doesn’t help

Often, people don’t fully understand why they feel stuck, unhappy, or keep repeating unhelpful patterns. They just know something needs to change—and that’s when therapy can be useful.

Some people are familiar with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), in which a therapist teaches skills and helps you change your thoughts to change your feelings. While this approach can be helpful in the short term, it often requires constant effort to maintain changes. Deep, lasting shifts in patterns or underlying issues can be limited.

Over time, old behaviors and patterns can resurface. You may still struggle with the same challenges, whether it’s mood, relationships, or habits. This can leave people feeling frustrated—or even ashamed—that despite doing the “work,” they haven’t achieved the lasting change they hoped for.

Therapy that addresses underlying causes and relational patterns can help move beyond symptom management to more meaningful, long-term change.

“There is nothing more dysfunctional than talking about your problems” Fritz Pearls

Change is possible

You might feel relieved to know that it is possible to change the patterns or behaviours that brought you to therapy. Whether it’s drinking, anxiety, depression, feeling stuck, or difficulties in relationships, these behaviours often have deep roots—and they can be transformed in the present.

Addiction, for example, can serve as a way to avoid difficult feelings, often tied to challenges in early life. Anxiety and depression, while painful, can feel more manageable than the underlying grief, rage, or despair that they mask.

When you look at your current struggles in the context of your early experiences, they make sense. In fact, they can even be seen as clever, adaptive ways you survived as a child with limited options. The good news is that, as an adult, you now have many more choices for getting what you need and living the life you want.

Therapy becomes a space to experience something new: to feel supported and cared for, to cultivate a nurturing internal dialogue instead of the familiar inner critic, and to resolve unfinished business from the past. It’s a place to make new decisions—about yourself, your relationships, and your future—that are life-giving and create room for joy, growth, and personal expression.

In short, therapy gives you the opportunity to learn to do things differently, so that old patterns no longer have to define you.

What is Therapy at TFP?

At Therapy for People, we believe that therapy is for everyone. We draw from a range of therapeutic approaches to support meaningful and lasting change, with a primary focus on Energy Psychology, Transactional Analysis and Attachment-based therapy.

Transactional Analysis (TA) is a human-centred model for understanding ourselves and our relationships with others. While the name may sound technical, TA is a dynamic and accessible framework that helps explain how our personalities develop, how we learned to relate and communicate, and how those early patterns continue to shape our lives today. TA is widely practiced in Europe, South America, Asia, and many other parts of the world.

Alongside attachment-based therapy, this model informs how we work at Therapy for People. Together, these approaches help us understand not only what you’re struggling with, but why those patterns developed—and how they can change. Our work focuses on awareness, relationship, and creating new experiences that support growth, connection, and choice.

Core assumptions that guide our work

Our work is informed by three fundamental assumptions from Transactional Analysis:

1. Everyone is OK
   Every person has inherent value, worth, and dignity.
2. Everyone has the capacity to think and solve problems
   People are capable of understanding themselves and making meaningful choices.
3. Physis: the natural drive toward growth
   Change and development are part of our natural state.

The concept of OKness is central to our therapeutic approach. It reflects a deeply held belief that we are all born with intrinsic value and dignity. Our worth is not dependent on our behaviour, appearance, achievements, or failures. OKness is something we are born with—the understanding that we matter, that our essence is valuable, and that we deserve respect simply because we exist.

Behaviour vs. Essence

At times, our behaviour may be “not OK,” and this is often what brings people to therapy. In our work together, we separate who you are from what you do. Behaviour can be examined, challenged, and changed—without questioning your fundamental worth. This distinction creates the safety and space needed for real change to occur, both in how you act and how you feel about yourself.

Because people have the capacity to think and solve problems, we view you as the expert in your own life. Therapy is not about being told what to do; it is about discovering your own answers and removing the internal obstacles that get in the way of the life you want. The therapist’s role is to guide, support, and bring professional skill and experience—all in service of helping you move toward your goals.

Growth is your natural state. Therapy simply offers a way to engage that growth intentionally, directing it toward healing, clarity, and a more life-giving future.

Trauma and Therapy

Neuroscience increasingly supports what therapists have long observed: our early experiences—both big and small—shape how we feel, think, and relate throughout our lives. Trauma is often described as either “Big T” or “small t” trauma, and both can have a lasting impact.

Whats the difference

Big T traumas are the more obvious and acute experiences, such as childhood abuse, neglect, growing up with addiction in the home, car accidents, medical trauma, or war.

Small t traumas are often more subtle. They include the many ways our caregivers may have been unable to meet our emotional needs—times when our feelings weren’t validated, our boundaries weren’t respected, or our needs went unnoticed. These experiences can be easy to dismiss, yet they are significant. Small t trauma is often “sneaky” because while the impact is visible in adult life—depression, anxiety, addiction, loneliness, or difficulty in relationships—the connection to early experiences isn’t always obvious.

This is where therapy becomes meaningful. Therapy helps uncover and heal from both the big and small traumas that continue to influence us. As Eric Berne, the founder of Transactional Analysis, described it, therapy allows us to “put a new show on the road”—one that is no longer driven by the past.

How we work

At Therapy for People, we also use a gentle approach for resolving trauma called Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT). AIT is both psychodynamic and body-centred. Psychodynamic means we recognise that past experiences continue to shape our present, and that working with the past is often essential to creating a more joyful and fulfilling life now.

Being body-centred means acknowledging that our experiences are not only remembered cognitively—they are also held in the body. Rather than simply talking about the past, AIT works directly with these stored experiences in a gentle and effective way. This approach has successfully supported people experiencing addiction, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and other trauma-related challenges. Read more from Lissa Rankin on this topic here.

At Therapy for People, our work focuses on resolving the underlying causes of present-day suffering. As old patterns release, clients often experience greater freedom, emotional clarity, and the capacity to live more fully and joyfully.

Change can be easier than you think.

The Benefits of Therapy

Therapy offers more than symptom relief. It provides a space to understand yourself with greater clarity and compassion, to make sense of patterns that once felt confusing or out of your control, and to experience being met with care rather than judgment.

Through therapy, many people begin to feel less reactive and more choiceful. Old habits loosen their grip. Relationships become easier to navigate. Self-criticism softens into a kinder, more supportive inner voice. Over time, what once felt overwhelming can become manageable—and even meaningful.

At its best, therapy supports lasting change. It helps you resolve the roots of distress rather than continually managing its effects, creating room for greater ease, connection, and greater enjoyment of your life.