Psychotherapy Quotes

• When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Inspirational, Change, Positive

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.113, Beacon Press

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• Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

  Carl Jung

  Inspirational, Life, Beautiful

  Carl Gustav Jung (1973). “Letters”

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• The principle aim of psychotherapy is not to transport one to an impossible state of happiness, but to help (the client) acquire steadfastness and patience in the face of suffering.

  Carl Jung

  Suffering, Principles, Faces

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• The purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free.

  Rollo May

  People, Purpose, Existential

  28 Copy quote

• In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?

  Carl Rogers

  Relationship, Change, Healing

  Carl Rogers (2012). “On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy”, p.32, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass?

  Michael Torke

  Funny, Music, Listening

  65 Copy quote

• It's not too difficult to get the skeletons out of the closet with people, but to get the gold out is a different matter. That is therapy. Psychology is the Art of finding the gold of the spirit.

  Robert Johnson

  Art, Skeletons, People

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• Where you stand determines what you see and what you do not see; it determines also the angle you see it from; a change in where you stand changes everything.

  Steve de Shazer

  Change, Views, Perspective

  135 Copy quote

• Psychotherapy can be one of the greatest and most rewarding adventures, it can bring with it the deepest feelings of personal worth, of purpose and richness in living.

  Eda LeShan

  Adventure, Feelings, Purpose

  Eda J. LeShan (1965). “How to survive parenthood”

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• Each person is a unique individual. Hence, psychotherapy should be formulated to meet the uniqueness of the individual's needs, rather than tailoring the person to fit the Procrustean bed of a hypothetical theory of human behavior.

  Milton H. Erickson

  Unique, Bed, Needs

  Milton H. Erickson, Jeffrey K. Zeig, Brent B. Geary (2000). “The Letters of Milton H. Erickson”, p.17, Zeig Tucker & Theisen Publishers

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• Effective psychotherapy works because the therapist continues to grow as a person and as a healer.

  Jed Diamond

  Therapists, Grows, Healer

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

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• Psychotherapy is a cyclical process from isolation into relationship. It is cyclical because the patient, in terror of existential isolation, relates deeply and meaningfully to the therapist and then, strengthened by this encounter, is led back again to a confrontation with existential isolation.

  Irvin D. Yalom

  Encounters, Patient, Isolation

  Irvin D. Yalom (1980). “Existential Psychotherapy”, p.406, Basic Books

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• Problem talk creates problems, Solution talk creates solutions.

  Steve de Shazer

  Talking, Focus, Psychology

  132 Copy quote
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  I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

  Stephen Covey

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Stephen R. Covey (2016). “An Effective Life: Inspirational Philosophy from Dr. Covey’s Life”, p.88, FranklinCovey Co.

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• How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.

  Sigmund Freud

  Love, Life, Relationship

  Sigmund Freud (1960). “Letters”

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• Individual psychotherapy - that is, engaging a distressed fellow human in a disciplined conversation and human relationship - requires that the therapist have the proper temperament and philosophy of life for such work. By that I mean that the therapist must be patient, modest, and a perceptive listener, rather than a talker and advice-giver.

  Thomas Szasz

  Philosophy, Mean, Advice

  16 Copy quote

• Psychotherapy is the prostitution of friendship.

  Hans Eysenck

  Prostitution

  31 Copy quote

• The science of psychotherapy is knowing what to say, the art is knowing when to say it. (36)

  Jonathan Kellerman

  Art, Knowing, Art Is

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• Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

  Marianne Williamson

  Life, Confidence, Fear

  A Return to Love ch. 7 (1992). Frequently misattributed to Nelson Mandela.

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• Love is nature's psychotherapy.

  Eric Berne

  Love, Love Is

  80 Copy quote

• There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Positive, Happiness

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 2, sc. 2, l. [259]

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• Psychotherapy may begin with the primitive, but it must end with the divine, for both are integral factors in the human mind.

  Dion Fortune

  Mind, May, Divine

  Dion Fortune (2016). “The Machinery of the Mind”, p.60, Dion Fortune

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• 'Psychotherapy' is a private, confidential conversation that has nothing to do with illness, medicine, or healing.

  Thomas Szasz

  Healing, Medicine, Illness

  10 Copy quote

• I think the future of psychotherapy and psychology is in the school system. We need to teach every child how to rarely seriously disturb himself or herself and how to overcome disturbance when it occurs.

  Albert Ellis

  Children, School, Thinking

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• Depression comes back over time in about 90 percent of people on antidepressants. Studies show that relapses are far less common when people are treated with psychotherapy.

  Irving Kirsch

  People, Common, Study

  24 Copy quote