SERVICES
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
Individual psychodynamic psychotherapy for adults, young adults, college students, and mental health professional colleagues.
PSYCHOANALYSIS
Psychoanalysis is a more intensive form of psychotherapy in terms of frequency of sessions and depth of the therapeutic work
CLINICAL SUPERVISION
Consultation and clinical supervision to metal health professionals seeking to expand their skills in psychodynamic psychotherapy
WHAT IS PSYCHOTHERAPY?
Psychotherapy is a term that covers a wide range of interventions intended to alleviate unhappiness, anxiety, and other symptoms, and to enhance personal fulfillment. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is based on the principles of psychoanalysis. It is characterized by the unique way the therapist has been trained to listen and understand what the patient is communicating. Treatment is less focused on symptoms or problem solving, and more focused on increasing self-understanding and deepening insight into the emotional issues and conflicts which underlie a patient’s current difficulties. The therapist and patient work collaboratively to explore both conscious and unconscious thoughts and feelings. Therapy may also seek to understand aspects of the relationship between therapist and patient, which may relate to difficulties in the patient’s life outside of the therapy room. The goal is deep self-understanding, including both conscious and unconscious factors. It is designed to help the patient to become better equipped to function intentionally and in alignment with their own goals and wishes. Treatment pays special attention to considering ways in which the individual protects or defends herself, as well as to enhancing a person’s sense of self, and repairing self-esteem.
Most often therapy sessions occur between one and three times per week, with an open-ended time frame. Relief from acute symptoms may come quickly, while substantive change occurs gradually and requires a commitment of time and energy in the process.
WHAT IS PSYCHOANALYSIS?
Like psychodynamic psychotherapy, psychoanalysis is a method of profound inquiry into oneself. Psychoanalysis acknowledges that personal suffering is often a consequence of feelings and beliefs about which we are only dimly aware. We literally do not know what most deeply troubles us. As a result, conscious understanding of our difficulties is often insufficient to relieve symptoms or to prevent us from repeating painful patterns over and over again.
Typically, psychoanalysis involves the patient coming several times a week and communicating as openly and freely as possible. The analytic process allows unconscious feelings and thoughts to come alive in the treatment itself, where they can be recognized and understood, and ultimately changed. More frequent sessions allow a deepening of the relationship between the patient and the analyst, which in turn allows more thorough exploration of the patient’s internal life. The analyst listens attentively and without judgment to the patient’s stories, fantasies, and dreams, asking questions, offering ideas and connections to other aspects of the patient’s life and history. Through this process the patient and analyst learn more about how the patient interacts with others and in the world. Through this process, the psychoanalyst is able to offer a unique perspective that friends and relatives might be unable to see.