Psychodynamic Therapy

This is my home base. I work from (mostly) modern theories drawn originally from Freud. (Yes - THAT Freud.) How this plays out is that we’ll talk a lot about what is happening inside of you (your dynamics), especially your feelings, and working on inner changes. We’ll look at your relationships with others, including your relationship with me. We will talk about your caregivers in early life and how that influences who you are today. Goals include a fuller life, resilience, and self-acceptance.

I focus on highlighting familiar patterns you may be repeating, often calling attention to reenactments of parental behaviors and dynamics that influence your current relationships. By bringing these patterns to light, we can work collaboratively to understand their origins, challenge limiting beliefs, and foster healthier interactions. This deeper awareness can lead to meaningful insights, personal growth, and lasting change in your life.

Psychodynamic therapy delves into how past experiences influence current behaviors and emotions. I facilitate a reflective space for clients to explore unconscious patterns and unresolved conflicts, fostering deeper self-awareness. This insight-oriented therapy encourages personal growth by uncovering and addressing the roots of emotional distress, helping clients achieve a more integrated and fulfilling life

Psychodynamic therapy enables us to look at conflicts that often have travelled with you throughout your life. It's a longer-term process, which helps underlying themes come through. Often people go to therapy and work somewhat superficially, and the work is unsatisfying. But psychodynamic work tends to "stick" better.

Psychodynamic therapy rests on two core assumptions: past experiences inform present-day functioning, and many of our behaviors are influenced by unconscious motives.

I believe that our past creates the lens through which we see the world, including our relationship with those around us. Gaining insight into our patterns and these lenses can allow us greater choice and freedom in our present and future.

Most people seek therapy with a specific presenting problem. I practice with the intention to look at the whole person and help them expand the possibilities for their lives; beyond problem solving and sometimes even beyond their initial understanding of themselves. Though my own life experience can be conducive to understanding the depths of a patient’s trials, I believe psychotherapy allows us, together, to hold the space of not knowing.

Early experiences shape the people we become. Increasing our awareness of how our past influences our present allows us to make more conscious choices in the future.

My approach to therapy is psychodynamic, meaning I am interested in how our pasts shape our experiences of the present. I am committed to ongoing education and continue to receive weekly supervision in psychodynamic theory and practice.

I received my graduate degree from a university that emphasized how psychodynamic theory can be incorporated into all kinds of counseling. I find that looking at past experiences gives us insight into what is going on for us in the present. Learning more about how our experiences, relationships, and identities impact us helps us identify where we want to grow.

Graduated with a concentration in psychodynamic psychology

I received my graduate degree from a university that emphasized how psychodynamic theory can be incorporated into all kinds of counseling. I find that looking at past experiences gives us insight into what is going on for us in the present. Learning more about how our experiences, relationships, and identities impact us helps us identify where we want to grow.

I was trained in psychodynamic therapy throughout my masters program. Understanding a client's history, background, and family is essential to knowing how they are impacted by the world in the present.

Much of my training included a psychoanalytic and psychodynamic framework for understanding where problems originated for clients. I believe early childhood experiences and unconscious processes can shed light on why my client is currently struggling.

The majority of my training stems from psychodynamic theory as I work toward undoing and healing early childhood programming, experiences, and traumas that impact adult functioning.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy refers to an approach and theory that assumes that early life experience informs and shapes our current relationships and emotional state. It is loosely related to the theory and practice of psychoanalysis (see below). In psychodynamic therapy, the relationship and interaction with the therapist is seen as a primary mode of effecting positive or developmental change. Therapy tends to involve exploration of both current as well as past experiences, often uncovering aspects of a persons thoughts and emotions that were not fully realized or understood. It is through this new understanding and emotional exploration that negative or stuck states of mind and/or relationships are healed, resolved or developed.

I was trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy at the University of Chicago. Psychodynamic therapy, combined with other approaches, such as energy therapy techniques can be very effective in treating a number of conditions. That said, I don't get stuck on one or two approaches. That would be like a medical doctor who only prescibes penicillin. A good therapist needs a lot of tools in his or her toolbox.

Understanding of attachment theory and how ingrained trauma from the past effects us in the present.

I utilize psychodynamic theory in my practice. Sometimes I worry that just the word of it sounds intense or old school. But in very simple terms all it really means is looking at our relationships and examining patterns of relating and living!