Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a deep form of talk therapy focused on helping you understand both how and why you think, feel, and behave in certain ways. It is based upon the idea that our minds are influenced by desires, motivations, and assumptions outside of our conscious awareness that cause us to act in ways that may not be beneficial. As one of the oldest approaches to therapy, psychoanalytic psychotherapy has undergone extensive growth and advancement making it a highly effective treatment with proven short- and long-term benefits.
How does it work?
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is based on research in neuropsychology and understanding how the mind works. The basic premise behind this kind of therapy is that from infancy, we develop schemas that serve as templates for understanding and navigating life. These templates naturally get stored in the brain and we use them automatically without even realizing it. While this is incredibly helpful to our lives overall, sometimes we automatically apply these schemas in situations where they may not be applicable or in ways that result in problems. Additionally, these schemas can be influenced by distressing experiences causing them to become skewed and negative. This can then cause issues in our relationships, views of self, behaviors, emotions, etc. leading to mental health problems like anxiety and depression.
As a psychoanalytic therapist, I am trained to listen carefully to what you say (and don't say) in order to help you identify patterns that contribute to your difficulties. With this information, you become empowered to make choices that can lead you to a more fulfilling life.
What to expect
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy uses an unstructured and non-directive approach to increase your self-understanding so that you can become an informed consumer of your life. During therapy, you will be asked to “free associate”, meaning you say whatever thoughts, feelings, memories, images, and/or associations, that pop into your mind without filtering any information. Free association allows your mind to unconsciously string together information which is incredibly useful when uncovering unconscious patterns. Emphasis is also placed on exploring past and current experiences, thoughts about yourself, important relationships, and your thoughts and feelings about me. We will then use this information to identify patterns in your thinking, feeling, and behavior, and how these patterns affect various aspects of your life. You will be asked to attend therapy more than once per week which helps prevent discussions from focusing only on superficial day-to-day topics, thereby increasing the intensity and depth of the treatment.