Wojciech Domagalski

About

I am a psychologist and psychotherapist based in Poland. I provide individual, couples and group therapy to local clients while also extending my services globally by offering online sessions in English. I also offer supervision to younger therapists. How I usually work: I try to quickly offer a working conceptualization of the forces behind the client’s suffering - an explanation of why, for instance, someone suffers from depression. I often use Schema Therapy for that, as it's accessible and concrete, helping us establish the beginnings of a therapeutic "team". If needed, I then try to bring quick symptom relief using CBT or ACT methods – for instance, in cases of severe anxiety or panic attacks. I also sometimes use Gestalt-style emotional expression techniques (for example, when working through enmeshment with parents.) The core of my work however is psychodynamic, which means I focus a lot on accessing difficult feelings, analyzing character patters and framing problems as rooted in deep, unprocessed emotions. I also put a lot of emphasis on the therapeutic relationship, examining if it fits with the client's dynamics, but not shying away from acknowledging my own role in the unevitable temporary therapeutic disharmonies. Here's an quick example of how that may look like: Therapist: You keep saying your main problem is that you're afraid of loneliness too much to try a different relationship. But at times it seems to me that what you're even more afraid is closeness. You tell me that whenever your parter tries to connect, you pull away. Even earlier today, you said that I gave you a warm smile, and immediately you became distant unapproachable. And I get it, after all that you've been through, putting yourself out there must feel like inviting humiliation and pain back into your life. You just won't take that risk right now. Client: That smile of yours really freaked me out... Therapist: Yeah, I think I saw that. What was so scary? Client: I dunno.. It kind of felt like now I'll also need to be nice to you all the time, even if I don't feel like it. Therapist: Mhm, okay. So I was wrong, it wasn't about getting hurt this time. It rather felt like accepting an invitation to sharing a positive moment would trap you back in that people-pleaser mode you worked so hard to liberate yourself from, is that right? Client: Yes, that's how I felt..." This is what psychodynamic comments can sounds like - they're respectful, somewhat confrontational, but at the same time empathetic and non-pressuring. They bridge what the therapeutic relationship feels like with the clients present problems and possibly their past experiences. The therapist explores the here-and-now feelings of the client, especially if those feelings are a repetition of whatever bothers the client in their life and adjusts and nuances his interpretations, if they're off mark. I think its a way of doing therapy that best honors the compexity an ambiguity of most human problems, while at the same time being active and often intense.

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