Go beyond traditional counseling.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” - Sigmund Freud
What is psychodynamic psychotherapy?
Understanding Emotions Deeply: Psychodynamic therapy focuses on helping you explore and understand a wide range of emotions, even those that may feel conflicting or hard to express. It helps uncover emotional insights that lead to lasting change.
Spotting Life Patterns: It looks for recurring themes and patterns in your thoughts, emotions, and relationships. This can help you understand why certain situations or behaviors keep repeating in your life.
Connecting Past and Present: Your early life experiences can shape your present-day challenges. This therapy helps you make connections between past events and current feelings to break free from old influences.
Improving Relationships: Relationships play a big role in your emotional well-being. Psychodynamic therapy helps you understand and improve your interactions with others, making relationships healthier and more fulfilling.
A Safe Space to Reflect: In therapy, you work within a trusting relationship to explore thoughts and feelings, including those you might usually avoid. This process helps you grow emotionally and leads to meaningful personal change.
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I’m very interested in what life has been like for you, since the very beginning. However, everything is on the table for discussion. I recommend you try several things…
Say whatever comes to mind.
Talk about your thoughts and feelings.
Talk about your dreams and fantasies.
Talk about the thoughts and feelings you have about your therapist.
Talk about your whole life, particularly about people and events from your childhood.
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Psychodynamic psychotherapy helps you understand the deeper layers of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Sometimes, we react to situations in ways that don’t seem to make sense or feel stuck in patterns we can’t break. This therapy works by exploring how your past experiences, especially early relationships, have shaped your current emotional world. By connecting the dots between past and present, you can start to understand yourself better and make lasting changes.
In sessions, you and your therapist create a safe, supportive space to talk freely about whatever is on your mind. Your therapist listens closely, not just to what you say but also to what might be left unsaid—like emotions or memories you haven’t yet connected to your struggles. Together, you’ll uncover patterns in your relationships, choices, and ways of thinking, helping you see how they may be holding you back or causing distress. Therapeutic action results from a myriad of factors. These include gaining insight, having corrective emotional and relational experiences, reactivating development, and learning new ways of thinking about yourself, coping with stress, and engaging in relationships.
A unique part of this therapy is its focus on emotions and relationships, including the bond you develop with your therapist. The therapy relationship becomes a kind of "mirror" for your other relationships, where patterns like trust, fear, or conflict may play out. Your therapist helps you recognize and work through these patterns, giving you tools to improve how you connect with others in everyday life.
Ultimately, psychodynamic psychotherapy isn’t just about solving problems or reducing symptoms—it’s about deep, meaningful growth. By exploring your inner world, you develop greater self-awareness, emotional strength, and freedom to live a more fulfilling life. The process can be lengthy, requiring commitment and openness, but many find it a rewarding path to emotional healing and personal growth.
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Here are some specific ways this approach can be beneficial:
Self-Insight: This approach encourages introspection, leading to greater self-awareness. By examining your thoughts and dreams, you may uncover hidden emotions and understand the root causes of your distress.
Emotional Processing: The process allows you to express and work through feelings that may be repressed or difficult to face. This can facilitate emotional healing and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Improved Relationships: Understanding the patterns in your relationships can lead to healthier interactions. It can reveal how past relationships influence current dynamics, enabling you to make more conscious choices.
Coping Strategies: By gaining insight into your inner world, you can develop more effective coping mechanisms for dealing with life's challenges.
Behavioral Change: Identifying and working through recurring unhealthy patterns can help you break free from cycles of self-sabotage.
Personal Growth: The journey of working through deep emotional pain and conflict can lead to personal growth and a more meaningful life. By understanding yourself better, you can make choices that align more closely with your values and aspirations.
Overall, this approach provides a frame to explore complex psychological issues, fostering a deeper understanding of yourself and offering pathways to change.
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Yes, there is sufficient scientific literature to support psychodynamic psychotherapy for a number of concerns. These include, but are not limited to, forms of anxiety, depression, substance use, eating disorders personality disorders, and trauma-stressor related disorders. It is also known to be as effective as other forms of counseling, and potentially more effective over the long term.
Read more about it here.
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The psychodynamic approach is particularly suitable for individuals seeking deeper insight into their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This means it is helpful to have a reflective capacity to step outside of oneself, to think critically, and explore. It’s also beneficial to be open to believing humans are motivated by things outside of their awareness, such as their past or desires that might feel particularly “bad.” Motivation for treatment and change can be helpful too. Moreover, the process of psychotherapy requires trust, patience, and vulnerability in the relationship with your therapist.
Psychotherapy Integration
Psychotherapy integration means that your therapist doesn’t rely on just one single theory or technique. Instead, they weave together tools, insights, and methods from a range of approaches to best meet your individual needs. For example, they might use psychodynamic psychotherapy to help you understand how deep-seated patterns from your past influence how you feel today. They may also draw on relational psychoanalysis, which focuses on the way our current relationships—especially the relationship between you and your therapist—shape your emotions and behavior. Additionally, intersubjective theory stresses that both you and your therapist contribute to the healing process, working together to create a safe space for change.
By integrating these approaches, your therapist aims to provide a more personalized, flexible form of therapy. Rather than rigidly following a one-size-fits-all model, they blend the best parts of different theories to help you become more aware of your emotions, overcome old patterns, and form healthier, more fulfilling relationships. This type of integration recognizes that each person’s story is unique, and therefore healing often requires a combination of strategies tailored specifically to you.
Your questions answered.
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Even if it does not feel or seem relevant, still say it. Try to suspend judgement for a moment. That thought could lead us somewhere very important.
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While it might feel strange, the therapeutic relationship is a vehicle to explore and learn about the ways in which you show up in other relationships.
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The duration of psychotherapy can vary significantly based on several factors, including the individual's specific issues, treatment goals, and the therapeutic approach used.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy may extend to several months or even years, particularly for deeper-seated issues such as long-term anxiety, depression, trauma, or complex relationship dynamics. In these cases, treatment may involve more in-depth exploration of past experiences and patterns over time. Techniques are utilized to accelerate this process.
Additionally, the frequency of sessions can influence the overall length of therapy. Some clients may meet weekly, while others might attend twice a week. It is important to have open discussions with a therapist about expectations, goals, and the estimated duration of therapy to create a tailored approach that suits individual needs.
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While each client has a different goal in mind, we tend to look for progress in:
Improvement in symptoms.
Improved sense of self.
Improved relationships.
Increased reflective capacity.
Improved work, play, and rest.
Ultimately, the decision to end psychotherapy is hopefully a collaborative process.
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Here are a few links and articles to check out:
References:
"We don't so much solve our problems as we outgrow them. We add capacities and experiences that eventually make us bigger than the problems." - Carl Jung
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