Frequently Asked Questions
OUr Approach to Treatment
We want to understand you and help you in whatever ways you're struggling. We have found that psychoanalytic theory offers an approach to understanding who you are in all of your complexity, so we generally work from a contemporary relational psychoanalytic framework. So, what exactly is psychoanalytic therapy?
Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapies were pioneered by Sigmund Freud and emphasize the role of unconscious processes underlying our suffering. Our symptoms are often only the most visible signs of conditions that exist under the surface. In order to really resolve our problems, we must understand what our symptoms might be signaling to us about ourselves and our relation to others, where they came from, and how they fit within the context of our personalities. This is what we mean by appreciating our complexity as human beings. By acknowledging the unconscious dimensions of our lives, psychoanalytic therapies seek deeper, more meaningful changes in people. Instead of merely alleviating symptoms, the kind of changes that often occur from this approach to therapy include not only relief from various symptoms but greater freedom, inner resources, and inner capacities to create a life that is more rich and more meaningful. These are the kinds of changes we are most interested in effecting.
Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapies were pioneered by Sigmund Freud and emphasize the role of unconscious processes underlying our suffering. Our symptoms are often only the most visible signs of conditions that exist under the surface. In order to really resolve our problems, we must understand what our symptoms might be signaling to us about ourselves and our relation to others, where they came from, and how they fit within the context of our personalities. This is what we mean by appreciating our complexity as human beings. By acknowledging the unconscious dimensions of our lives, psychoanalytic therapies seek deeper, more meaningful changes in people. Instead of merely alleviating symptoms, the kind of changes that often occur from this approach to therapy include not only relief from various symptoms but greater freedom, inner resources, and inner capacities to create a life that is more rich and more meaningful. These are the kinds of changes we are most interested in effecting.
Psychoanalytic Distinctives
Psychoanalytic therapy is a more intensive, experiential kind of therapy requiring a higher level of training for the therapist. It often involves more frequent sessions, a longer timeframe in therapy overall, and a greater commitment by both therapist and patient. It requires patients be willing to examine painful feelings and thoughts and to explore the history of how problems developed (including one's family history and traumas that may have occurred). It also emphasizes examining the ways people feel, protect themselves against feelings, distort perceptions of the world, and make meanings of experience that often perpetuate problems. Contemporary relational psychoanalytic therapy is much different from its caricatured and stereotyped depictions on TV and film. Instead of a neutral silent therapist acting as a blank screen, the therapy feels warm, collaborative, and improvisational. The therapist is less like a teacher and more like an experienced guide asking questions and deepening experiences that emerge in session towards the aim of clarifying and elaborating experience. Although it requires a significant investment of time, money, and emotional resources for both patient and therapist, psychoanalytic therapy is ambitious in its aim of helping people make changes that are often lifelong.
Where does psychoanalytic therapy fit in context with other approaches? In many ways, the roots of talk therapy began with psychoanalysis. However, short-term, solution-focused models of treatment arose over the years in an effort to reduce healthcare costs and make therapeutic change more efficient. As a result, there are now many therapy modalities emphasizing a variety of specific goals such as symptom reduction, learning particular techniques and skills, or modifying a narrow range of behavior. Many of these kinds of therapies tend to be more directive and structured, place the therapist in a teacher role over the client, and rely on advice and education as primary agents of change. Such focused, short-term approaches, while sometimes helpful, often do not address the complexity of the person in their entirety - their personality dynamics, developmental history, emotional life, etc. These kinds of approaches can neglect the significance and depth of our personalities and thus short-change people from making the kinds of changes that are lasting and meaningful.
Where does psychoanalytic therapy fit in context with other approaches? In many ways, the roots of talk therapy began with psychoanalysis. However, short-term, solution-focused models of treatment arose over the years in an effort to reduce healthcare costs and make therapeutic change more efficient. As a result, there are now many therapy modalities emphasizing a variety of specific goals such as symptom reduction, learning particular techniques and skills, or modifying a narrow range of behavior. Many of these kinds of therapies tend to be more directive and structured, place the therapist in a teacher role over the client, and rely on advice and education as primary agents of change. Such focused, short-term approaches, while sometimes helpful, often do not address the complexity of the person in their entirety - their personality dynamics, developmental history, emotional life, etc. These kinds of approaches can neglect the significance and depth of our personalities and thus short-change people from making the kinds of changes that are lasting and meaningful.
The Therapeutic Relationship
Answer to question 2
Typical OUtcomes
What type of training does it take to become a psychologist?
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