A Brief Introduction to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
With so many different therapeutic modalities out there, it can be challenging to find the right fit for you. Many clinicians work using more than one lens and can effectively cater care to each individual client or patient, but it can be helpful for those seeking services to have some language around how they’d like to start. Coming into therapy with an idea about the approach you’d like to take may support you and your therapist in laying down your goals and specifying your treatment plan, while giving you more agency over your experience.
If you’re looking for a therapist because you find yourself stuck in some way, if there’s a particular aspect of your life that consistently causes you stress while others do not, or if you’re experiencing acute or persistently negative emotional states, working in part from a psychodynamic lens may be supportive. Acute crises may include recent losses or grief, recent experiences of trauma, illness, life transitions and social upheavals. Persistent difficulties may include ongoing issues with motivation, emotional overwhelm, anxiety, self-esteem, or relationships.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a form of depth therapy and may be used in tandem with models that prioritize symptom relief and distress regulation. It is focused on identifying root causes of presenting behaviors or emotions. The symptoms a client exhibits are not pathologized but viewed as stemming from a web of complex factors, which may include earlier-life history and unconscious forces; the therapist and client may explore these factors together to offer the client context for their experiences, viewing awareness as a vital step towards change.
Distinctive features of this modality also include a focus on emotional expression or its suppression, exploration of attempts to avoid experience, investigation of reoccurring themes and patterns in a person’s life, discussion of past experiences and their relationship to present day realities, core needs, wishes and desires – both met and unmet throughout life, as well as a reflection on interpersonal relations, including on the therapeutic relationship itself.
A psychodynamic approach may further be helpful for those who’ve acquired the coping strategies and tools they need to navigate and neutralize acute levels of distress, but who nevertheless find themselves moving through familiar themes or challenges in life.
If this sounds like it could be a supportive frame for you to work from, please give us a call to set up a consultation with our Registered Psychotherapist.