Is Knowing Root Cause Essential
One of the more common questions I get asked as a therapist is whether or not therapy will lead to learning the root cause of a particular issue. The answer may seem a little vague, but I will say that sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t. However, it is certainly not always necessary to find the root cause.
In traditional regressive or hypno-analytical approaches the goal is to discover the root cause of an issue. Once discovered this can then be rationalised and understood, which should then lead to the problem being resolved. This is the answer for some clients, for others the knowledge of the root cause plays no significant role in whether or not the issue gets resolved. One can only study the past on cannot change it.
In far more cases than not, I approach therapy from a here and now perspective. This means, what is happening now and what needs to happen in order to change that so that today and tomorrow are better. Yes, even with this, I still want to understand a client’s past, but the past does not do anything but inform the way we look at the here and now and the future. Solution focused work tends to be a far more positive therapeutic experience for the vast majority of those who experience it.
