Marcus Bowman PhD : Psychotherapy & Counselling

I work with adults (18+ years) on an individual basis. I treat clients suffering from a wide range of emotional problems, including depression, generalised anxiety, panic attacks, relationship problems, sexual problems, obsessive compulsive disorder, addiction, post-traumatic stress, transient delusional states, & so on. I am available to see clients Tuesday to Friday from 12 Midday until 8.00 in the evening. Also if required on some Saturday mornings by arrangement. Therapy sessions usually last about 50 minutes. Clients usually attend for therapy on a weekly or fortnightly basis, depending on the severity of their symptoms & their general circumstances. My fee per therapy session depends upon how often a client is attending me. I charge less for those attending more frequently. I also have reduced rates for clients who are receiving disability benefits or who are on a minimum wage. If you would like to meet me to discuss a possible course of psychotherapy please telephone me or text me (087 654 5327), or contact me by email (pangurcottage@gmail.com) or by Facebook Message.

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There are different kinds of psychotherapist who work in slightly different ways. The jargon of the profession can be confusing for people not involved in it. I am what is referred to as a psychoanalytic therapist. This means that I work simply by talking with my clients & by getting them to discuss whatever is foremost on their minds & what is worrying them most on the day of the session. As a psychoanalytic therapist I believe the most important thing is to understand the psychological conflicts that are active within the client. I work by establishing a personal relationship with the client & through that relationship help the client to see more clearly how his or her conflicts are causing the distressing symptoms. By clarifying conflicts that the client is not able to see before coming to therapy, the therapy helps the client to resolve such conflicts. As a therapist my primary emphasis is to encourage the autonomy of the individual patient. Emotional health means something slightly different for each one of us & each of us has to work to discover what that is. My approach to psychotherapy is secular. I belong to no religion & don’t consider that emotional problems have religious solutions.

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In 1993 I completed a master’s degree at University College Dublin on Nietzsche’s Psychology. In 1997 I was awarded a doctoral degree, on Psychoanalysis & Semiotic Theory. In 2002 my book The Last Resistance was published by The State University of New York. This is an examination of the scientific basis of the theory & practice of psychoanalytic therapy. I am an Associate Member of the Irish Psycho-Analytic Association in Dublin (https://goo.gl/v2NRBf).

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Throughout my working life the two main influences on my thinking have been Nietzsche & Freud. Nietzsche is the first depth psychologist in the modern sense of that term. He lays the conceptual foundation on which almost all modern psychotherapy rests. He is the first to stress that as human beings we all displace our basic instincts along symbolic pathways. This means that our underlying motives are always undergoing disguise & we have to work hard all the time to discover what is really driving us. Nietzsche emphasises in particular how religion & morality have been used to disguise our basic impulses, in many cases making them harmful to the best interests of ourselves & those around us. This is something of which we see multiple examples in Irish society & culture in the past & in the present. The importance of Freud in psychotherapy is of course second to none. From Freud we learn the crucial perspective of looking at each individual as being in a state of constant evolution & change, while at the same time as continually reworking throughout adult life the impressions & experiences of infancy & childhood. All serious psychotherapy is characterised by this developmental approach first articulated by Freud. Through his studies of the operation of displacement & psychological defence it was Freud who first gave us the means to translate the language of mental illness into that of everyday life. This was the great revolution that overcame the fear & stigma of mental illness that had plagued man since prehistory. To the extent we are now able to be honest about the problems of mental illness, which touch all of us at some point in life, it is very largely due to Freud’s extraordinary work.

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