Andrew Libby (he/they)

Be here now, with me, talking. Gestalt therapy draws on the power inherent in creative dialogue grounded in embodied awareness of the present moment. This style of therapeutic interaction grows out of earlier psychodynamic styles as they encounter mindfulness traditions from Asia. After training five years, I became credentialed as a certified Gestalt therapist and psychoanalyst. Before and during that, I did a lot of meditating, retreats, and ran a dharma center. Still do, still no expert.

In Gestalt therapy, we pay close attention to how the body--our movements, gestures, facial expressions, postures, etc.--give expression to the energy fluctuations we call feelings and emotions. Paying attention to the body we can empathize with how someone is organizing their experience. Since memories, and trauma, can reside in the body, somatic styles of therapy reach preverbal dimensions of our experience. I am training in Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy to refine these capabilities.

Psychodynamic styles all rely on the fact that much of our lives occurs outside of our awareness. Old-school psychoanalysts focus on "the unconscious"; neuroscientists estimate that we are unaware of as much as 95 % of our cognitive activity, including decisions and emotions. The psychodynamic style I use relies on the power of creative dialogue and narrative to bring your experience into fully embodied awareness. The more aware you are, the more choices you see. I am a licensed psychoanalyst.

Be here now, with me, talking. Gestalt therapy draws on the power inherent in creative dialogue grounded in embodied awareness of the present moment. This style of therapeutic interaction grows out of earlier psychodynamic styles as they encounter mindfulness traditions from Asia. After training five years, I became credentialed as a certified Gestalt therapist and psychoanalyst. Before and during that, I did a lot of meditating, retreats, and ran a dharma center. Still do, still no expert.

About 85 % of the patients I work with describe themselves as "depressed" or "depressive." All of these improve their experience through time. I focus less on the descriptors and more on patients' experiences: what low-energy states feel like, how they get in the way of productivity, how they may alternate with more energetic feelings, how they sometimes support creativity. These are my focuses. Taking medication can also help alleviate some symptoms. I am not a prescriber.

Graduating, coming out, getting partnered, breaking up, landing a job that forwards your values, growing old, growing period--all of these count for me as life transitions. If passing through change is making you feel uneasy or scared, exploring those uncomfortable feelings may help. In my experience, working with such discomfort involves looking closely at expectations – both those you put on yourself and those that feel foisted on you – so you can see your choices more clearly.

Sexuality is one of the basic ways humans express themselves and come to know who they are. Contemporary culture is grossly inhospitable to many styles of sexual self-expression, and this is a source of great distress for many of us. I work with individuals and couples to support them as they explore themselves as sexual beings. We look at comfort levels acknowledging sexual orientations, which may shift; opening to new practices; kink and BDSM; how sexuality and gender identity interact.

Psychodynamic is an umbrella for therapeutic approaches that acknowledge that important aspects of what moves us, and moves us to act in the world, are not immediately available to our conscious mind. It moves beyond alleviating symptoms to address what those symptoms are signaling from a deeper level of your self. For longer-lasting change that leads to growth I find it vital to work at these deeper levels of personality so as to loosen blockages that stall personal growth.