Psychoanalytic

Psychoanalytic theory, the theory that guides psychoanalysis, was first developed by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis is a therapeutic treatment method founded in the study of the unconscious mind. Freud believed that people could be cured of any number of mental health issues by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, which provides insights into the root of the issue. The goal of is to release pent-up or repressed emotions and memories to lead the client to catharsis, or healing. Traditionally, psychoanalysis sessions will occur 4–5 times a week, with clients lying on a couch, and the therapist (or analyst) often sitting just behind and out of sight. The client will express their thoughts, dreams and fantasies, which the analyst will examine to help the client gain powerful insights. Think this approach might be right for you? Reach out to one of TherapyDen’s psychoanalytic experts today.

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Under this umbrella falls many theories and approaches such as : object relations and modern psychoanalysis. Object relations is in a nutshell you relate to others including partners how your caregiver related to you. We all strive for perfection but it is really about being "good enough". Modern psychoanalysis is focusing on protecting from self attacks and self-sabotage. (cue Bestie Boys music). The therapist job is to have the client "say everything."

— Alicia Walker, Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Montclair, NJ

Carefully listening to the conflicts and desires hidden within your story, through which we can establish new ways for you to live and thrive.

— David Brown, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in San Francisco, CA
 

Psychoanalysis basically means a kind of talk therapy that helps you discover the deepest core meaning to you behaviors, emotions, and problems. Often these reasons are deep in the unconscious or outside of your awareness. We work together to help figure out what those unconscious things are so you have more control over them.

— Chardonnay Badchkam, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor in , NY

I approach therapy through a Contemporary Psychoanalytic Lens to understand what is being communicated through one's behaviors and understand how past experiences influence current relationships. As we form a relationship, I have found individuals develop stronger insight, aiding with a deeper understanding of self, and experiencing more lasting and sustainable relief.

— Jon Soileau, Licensed Professional Counselor in Kansas City, MO
 

The current versions of psychoanalytic therapy all examine how a person’s mind works and affects their view of themselves and the world they live in. One central focus is that unconscious factors affect current relationships and behaviors. Psychoanalysis changed since Freud founded it. I focus on how the ways trauma and attachment are central to understanding how the mind works and impacts current thinking, feeling, and behaving, as in my new book, Traumatic Experiences of Normal Development.

— Carl H. Shubs, Ph.D., Psychologist in Beverly Hills, CA

Nearly 10 years of clinical experience using Object Relations Psychotherapy.

— Ross Kellogg, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in Los Angeles, CA
 

I am currently a student of Jungian psychoanalysis through the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. Psychoanalytic therapy aims to understand processes of our unconscious and how they impact our functioning in our daily lives. Psychoanalytic therapy is a deep dive into your complexes and personal history. Psychoanalytic theories used in conjunction with other experiential and somatic types of therapy can assist us in bringing our unconscious threads to consciousness.

— Kyra Paules, Clinical Social Worker in Boiling Springs, PA

Psychoanalytic therapy focuses on understanding your are formed by both your past, and your unconscious processes. This type of therapy puts the patient at the center, and focuses on empathic atunement and listening. Through understanding who we are and how we got here, we can better understand the issues that plague us in our everyday lives. And we can learn to mourn the losses of the past and move forward, choosing a better future.

— James Nole, Counselor in Seattle, WA
 

In order to heal, you have to truly get to know yourself. Psychoanalytic therapy helps you understand yourself on a more intimate level. By exploring past experiences and relationships, in addition to what is going on for you in the here and now, we can gain greater access to all that is you. This kind of therapy expands your consciousness and opens up worlds of possibility. You will start to connect the dots between past and present, which can be both revelatory and liberating.

— Julia Lehrman, Psychotherapist in San Francisco, CA

I work from a social and relational psychoanalytic perspective. I pay close attention to how past and present sociopolitical forces, family dynamics, and personal history shape the way we experience our lives and relate to ourselves, others, and the wider world. From this perspective, I function much less as an authority, but as a partner in trying to make sense of my patients' thoroughly unique experience.

— Vuthy Ou, Clinical Psychologist in Philadelphia, PA
 

The psychoanalytic method involves an analyst and an analysand, one listens while the other speaks. At some point in this process it becomes apparent that something has been repressed, cut-off, dis-jointed, in the mind of the analysand and the analyst works to bring this unconscious conflict to light.

— Benjamin Ramey, Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado Springs, CO

Why psychodynamic/analytic therapy? The here and now psychotherapy relationship opens a stunning window into past, present, and future; into the deep wisdom of the unconscious; and into a creative flexibility that brings more and more wholesomeness, freedom, intimacy, and flourishing of the soul. I have doctoral and postdoctoral training in various contemporary analytic approaches, and I practice from a liberatory, feminist, relational stance.

— Aleisa Myles, Psychologist in Media, PA
 

Psychoanalysis has so many confusing definitions which are worsened by how unethical therapy often depicted. Psychoanalytic therapy, for me, looks at what we are aware of and digs deeper to see what you might not be aware is there, but is affecting us negatively (ex: internalized transphobia, ableism, social or family messages of our values and worth as humans). In therapy I do ask about our pasts and how they are still currently affecting us and, sometimes, how that can be harmful to our health

— Shirley Roseman, Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Psychoanalysis basically means a kind of talk therapy that helps you discover a deepest core meaning to you behaviors, emotions, and problems. Often these reasons are deep in the unconscious. We work together to help figure out what those unconscious things are so you have more control over them.

— Chardonnay Badchkam, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor in , NY
 

We approach therapy through a contemporary psychoanalytic lens to understand what is being communicated through one's behaviors and understand how past experiences are influencing current relationships. As we form our relationships we have found that individuals develop deeper insight, aiding with a deeper understanding of themselves, and experiencing more lasting and sustainable relief.

— Jon Soileau, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in Kansas City, MO

Modern psychoanalysts recognize the individuality of each person. We aim to understand the unconscious forces that may interfere with living fulfilling lives. By creating a non-judgmental space, the analyst helps people talk about feelings, thoughts and fantasies they may not have known they had. By accepting all these thoughts and feelings as valuable information, the analyst helps people learn to tolerate painful feelings and accept the disturbing and sometimes intriguing parts of themselves.

— Jennifer Coonce, Psychoanalyst in Brooklyn, NY