When the time comes to do some (or some additional) personal development work, it can be challenging to know how to get started. Should you schedule an appointment with a therapist, join a personal development group, or take a weekend workshop? On which aspects of your life should you focus your attention? Do you need to dig into your past, process some emotion, or learn a new skill to help you move forward? Here are some considerations that will help you determine the right people and the right environments needed to help you grow.
Where is the Challenge in your Life? Is your challenge predominantly personal, relational, professional, or organizational? Sometimes, the things we struggle with touch multiple areas of our life. If this is the case, I’d say your challenge fits in the “personal area” of your life because your personal life affects all other parts of your life.
What is the Location of your Challenge? This is the trickiest question to find the answer to. Challenges exist in different parts of a person’s life. Certain therapeutic modalities are suited to certain types of problems. For example, if your challenge has to do with a recurring family issue, then you’ll want to select a method that works with your ancestral line. If you have lots of negative thoughts, then you’ll want to use a modality that helps change your patterns of thinking and process stuck emotions.
What is your Processing Style? There are different strokes for different folks. Not all methods work for all people. What draws you in or repulses you is important to take into the equation. Listening to yourself is always the key to getting the right help.
Here are some different therapeutic approaches and moments when they might be useful for you:
- Core Energetics: Great for understanding defense patterns, clearing emotional baggage, and providing a deeper understanding of how to connect with the true you.
- Shadow Work: Provides a powerful tool for clearing emotional baggage and releasing unhelpful patterns of relating.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Essential skills for thinking positively and getting things done.
- Expressive Arts: Helpful for rooting out deep and often subconscious emotional patterns, and expanding possibilities.
- Imago: Great for supporting couples in understanding how to communicate more effectively and be truly present to each other in a relationship.
- Family Constellations: A powerful tool for helping clear ancestral issues and other challenges that may not have been learned directly in our lives.
- Professional Coaching: Offers results-focused support to meet professional goals. Optimal for people seeking professional excellence.
- Hypnosis: Extremely helpful in switching over belief systems and retraining the nervous system.
Are you looking for your next step in your personal development? I do my best in my LifeWork Community program to create a powerful transformational process to help people connect to the core of who they are and live from an alive, heart-centered place. I make a point to integrate different therapeutic approaches and teach core transformational skills. I would love for you to check it out!
