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Individual Psychotherapy and Counseling
Psychotherapy is the psychological treatment of emotional problems by a qualified clinical psychologist. It should be distinguished from counselling, which assists relatively well-adjusted people to deal with the problems of living and to attain higher levels of psychological adjustment, growth and maturity. Psychotherapy is a talking cure that is aimed at helping clients overcome psychological/emotional dysfunction such as Depression, Anxiety, trauma (for example, the consequences of crime), sexual problems and other psychological problems. Psychotherapy treats these problems so that people can achieve growth and enjoy living.
Psychotherapy is a working through process that happens over a number of sessions (depending on the nature and depth of the problem). Dr Tlou works brief term (between 4 and 8 sessions) over 50-minute sessions. Psychiatric drugs may be necessary as an adjunct to psychotherapy. Should the intensity of a client’s problem require drug treatment, Dr Tlou will refer the client to his wide network of psychiatrists around Centurion and Pretoria.
Dr Tlou prefers to work with adolescents (from 13 years) and adults.
Couples/Marital Therapy
This is psychotherapy done with two people in a love relationship at any stage in the relationship, be they married or not, gay or straight. The goal of couples / marital therapy is to assist the couple attain a higher level of functioning in their relationship. All relationships encounter difficulties that result in conflict or disagreements. If these conflicts are not properly managed the relationship becomes dysfunctional and fails to satisfy the needs of the individuals involved. Using tried and tested methods, Dr Tlou is able to assess the nature of the relationship problem and helps couples find mature ways of managing their relationship issues.
Dr Tlou usually does couples/marital therapy over 4 to 8 sessions. The first session (sometimes up to the second or third) is usually a 90-minute assessment in which Dr Tlou interviews the couple individually (30-minutes each) and then sees them jointly for a 30-minute feedback session in which the goals of therapy are negotiated. Proper work on issues usually starts by the second (sometimes third) session. Sessions that follow the first one are 50 minutes long.
Pre-Marital Therapy
Pre-marital counselling is counselling and guidance with a couple that is about to get married. The goal of pre-marital counselling is to assist the two individuals to understand one another and to negotiate around issues that are known to cause marital discord such as, managing finances, managing in-laws, raising children, values, work life and a myriad of other issues.
Pre-marital counselling is typically done over four sessions. The first session is a 90-minute assessment interview in which the individuals are seen separately for 30 minutes each and given joint feedback for the last 30 minutes. From the second session, the couple start to negotiate around the issues that have been identified as significant for their relationship. In the last session the couple draw a relationship contract to which they bind themselves.
Family Therapy
The family is the natural habitat of a human being and its climate determines the wellbeing of its inhabitants – the same way the climate in an ocean determines the climate of the islands situated in it. Well-adjusted families often produce well-adjusted individuals, contrariwise, dysfunctional families often produce dysfunctional personalities. If therapeutic intervention (individual or couple) indicates that the seat of the problem is in the family system and, therefore the focus of therapy should be the family, Dr Tlou invites the whole family to be part of the treatment. The rationale is that addressing issues in the family that cause emotional problems in individual members would result in improvement in the individual members.
Family therapy starts with a 2-hour assessment session with the entire family unit followed by a feedback session in which the goals of family therapy are negotiated. Family therapy is done over four to eight sessions.
HIV and AIDS Counseling
Testing positive for the human-immuno deficiency virus and being diagnosed with an AIDS-related condition is very often a traumatic experience for most people and emotional disorders may result. Dr Tlou, whose doctoral thesis was on HIV/AIDS health promotion, is a specialist on HIV/AIDS psychological issues and counselling. Living with HIV and AIDS can present many problems for which psychotherapy is indicated. In addition to HIV pre-test and post-test counselling, people may require long term supportive psychotherapy to help them manage the myriad issues people living with HIV and AIDS have to confront. Bereavement counselling for survivors is also available.
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