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Psychoeducation is considered to be an essential aspect of all therapy programs. Its primary goal is to help people better understand, and become accustomed to living with, mental health conditions.

It is not an approach to treatment in itself but represents an important early step in treatment, as it offers those individuals involved in a person’s care information on both how to offer support and how to maintain their own emotional health.

However, when I think about the psychological factors in therapy, there’s something very important in the experiential mechanism — the method of educating through first-hand experience. 

For example, it’s very different to describe to someone what it’s like to eat chocolates versus giving them the experiential situation of being able to touch, smell, and taste chocolates. Similarly in therapy, it’s very different to talk to someone about what it might be like to be connected with friends versus experiencing the space of what it feels like to be lonely. 

Rather than encouraging someone to go out and socialise again, I believe that sometimes allowing past loneliness to be experienced first-hand can have a driving force to change habits and actions.

It’s important to help clients into that experiential world; I believe there’s far more advantage in doing things that are more experiential in session rather than simply teaching.