If you are considering psychotherapy you are probably looking to change something in your life and may have already tried more directive forms of treatment like behavioral therapy that is usually short term. Many people leave short term psychotherapy unsatisfied and feeling they have tried psychotherapy and it did not work, when they have only tried one form of psychotherapy. While behavioral treatment can be quite good with certain types of problems, especially when someone is seeking treatment with a specific goal in mind, most people who seek treatment only know that they are unhappy with their lives.

The type of internal changes people seek usually requires a longer period of time than most directed therapies and happens more often in a type of psychotherapy that is non-directive. The same issues that are worked through in behavioral treatments like negative self-statements or a tendency to have a negative view of the world are still worked through in non-directive psychotherapy. One could say a non-directive psychotherapy provides a canvas on which the patient can paint their own lives and the ideas they have about themselves. The past is included in the treatment to the degree to which it comes into the present as are the different ways people avoid their feelings or hide their feelings from themselves.

The more intensive the psychotherapy the more it can set one's life on a different trajectory.