What is Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
My working definition of Psychoanalysis is the disciplined study of whatever it is people do not want toknow about themselves (Warren S Poland)
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy draws on theories and practices of analytical psychology and psychoanalysis.Psychoanalysis takes us from the darkness of the unconscious to the light of knowing and understanding who we are and who we can be. Psychoanalysis works to expose the unconscious and archaic areas of belief that silently govern our lives, impinge on ourselves and others, and this is one of the most liberating effects of analysis. One’s language, as a result, changes from self-reproach, self-depreciation and self-admonition for self-appraisal. For a great description go to http://www.thebookoflife.org/what-is-therapy-for/
A psychoanalytic orientation implies: an expectation of long-term therapy; a focus on the psychodynamic context of symptoms or difficulties, their pattern, meaning and individual psychological background; and a non-directive technique, where interpretation of resistance and transference phenomena is essential and where fixed frames are emphasized. Patients may need more than one session per week as it aims to influence the deeper layers of the personality, at the sources of the troubling thoughts and behaviours. This big investment in one’s life can produce significant rewards in terms of the ability (as Freud put it) to love and to work. People find themselves freed to live life more to the full, to be more creative in all sorts of ways, and to relate to and care for others better. It has significant benefits over and above the behavioural, such as cognitive behavioural therapies - see link: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/07/therapy-wars-revenge-of-freud-cognitive-behavioural-therapy and npsa-association.org/education-training/suggested-reading/the-efficacy-of-psychoanalyticpsychodynamic-therapies-reading-list/. . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BElUOQqvyEg
Most mental illnesses begin far more early in life than was previously believed due to the developmental and biological disruptions occurring during the early years of life – environment modifies how our genetics are expressed, and imparts either a risk for, or resilience to, later psychopathology. The epigenetic mechanism is centrally involved in creating individual differences in personality as well as more severe psychopathologies such as post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia and major depression.
The therapeutic relationship is the core of the change mechanism. Therapy changes brain structure and function; regional cerebral blood flow, neurotransmitter metabolism, gene expression and synaptic plasticity. Ongoing episodes of interactive regulation of affective arousal via intensive therapy, impact on a patient’s threshold for the activation of right brain stress responses. The processing of previously repressed affects, separated from awareness by defences and symptoms, allows them to become regulated and adaptively integrated into the patient’s emotional life. A patient’s tolerance for potential flooding or ‘triggering’ increases, allowing them to increasingly hold on to any experience as it is happening. Without the maladaptive defences and symptoms that block full right hemisphere maturation and affect regulation the patient is able to experience an integrated sense of self across state that transitions allows for a continuity of inner experience.
Thus, psychoananalytic psychotherapy differs from most other therapies in aiming for deep-seated change in personality and emotional development. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy aims to help people with serious psychological disorders to understand and change complex, deep-seated and often unconsciously based emotional and relationship problems, thereby reducing symptoms and alleviating distress. The role of the psychoanalytic psychotherapist is not limited only to those with mental health problems. Many people who experience a loss of meaning in their lives or who are seeking a greater sense of fulfillment or self-awareness may be helped by psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
People reveal hidden things about themselves in all sorts of ways, inside and outside analysis. Examples are slips of the tongue, jokes and dreams. Dreaming is the way we think while we are asleep, and it is much less carefully censored than our waking thoughts. Our imagination has a freer reign during sleep, and dream ideas can be revealing and sometimes creative. Dreams can be straightforward, but they often need decoding to reveal the ideas and feelings being expressed, and they can often be useful in analysis.
Sometimes people seek help for specific reasons such as eating disorders, psycho-somatic conditions, obsessional behaviour, or phobic anxieties. At other times help is sought because of more general underlying feelings of depression or anxiety, difficulties in concentrating, dissatisfaction in work or inability to form satisfactory relationships. The therapy can help people with emotional and behavioural difficulties, which are evident at home or work, which can include personality problems, depression, learning difficulties, school phobias, eating or sleeping disorders.
Both therapist and patient usually sense and agree when it’s time to set an ending date and to work towards this. That’s not to say that it’s easy to stop seeing someone they have worked so closely with and grown attached to. But giving up and mourning the therapy itself is actually an important phase of the work.
Generally speaking psychoanalytic psychotherapy is best considered as a long-term treatment involving considerable commitment for both patient and therapist.
I am located at 7-9 Bardolph Street, Glen Iris Vic 3146 Mob: 0412 563 638 Fax: 03 9011 9656 E: vicki.odwyer@gmail.com
My working definition of Psychoanalysis is the disciplined study of whatever it is people do not want toknow about themselves (Warren S Poland)
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy draws on theories and practices of analytical psychology and psychoanalysis.Psychoanalysis takes us from the darkness of the unconscious to the light of knowing and understanding who we are and who we can be. Psychoanalysis works to expose the unconscious and archaic areas of belief that silently govern our lives, impinge on ourselves and others, and this is one of the most liberating effects of analysis. One’s language, as a result, changes from self-reproach, self-depreciation and self-admonition for self-appraisal. For a great description go to http://www.thebookoflife.org/what-is-therapy-for/
A psychoanalytic orientation implies: an expectation of long-term therapy; a focus on the psychodynamic context of symptoms or difficulties, their pattern, meaning and individual psychological background; and a non-directive technique, where interpretation of resistance and transference phenomena is essential and where fixed frames are emphasized. Patients may need more than one session per week as it aims to influence the deeper layers of the personality, at the sources of the troubling thoughts and behaviours. This big investment in one’s life can produce significant rewards in terms of the ability (as Freud put it) to love and to work. People find themselves freed to live life more to the full, to be more creative in all sorts of ways, and to relate to and care for others better. It has significant benefits over and above the behavioural, such as cognitive behavioural therapies - see link: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/07/therapy-wars-revenge-of-freud-cognitive-behavioural-therapy and npsa-association.org/education-training/suggested-reading/the-efficacy-of-psychoanalyticpsychodynamic-therapies-reading-list/. . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BElUOQqvyEg
Most mental illnesses begin far more early in life than was previously believed due to the developmental and biological disruptions occurring during the early years of life – environment modifies how our genetics are expressed, and imparts either a risk for, or resilience to, later psychopathology. The epigenetic mechanism is centrally involved in creating individual differences in personality as well as more severe psychopathologies such as post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia and major depression.
The therapeutic relationship is the core of the change mechanism. Therapy changes brain structure and function; regional cerebral blood flow, neurotransmitter metabolism, gene expression and synaptic plasticity. Ongoing episodes of interactive regulation of affective arousal via intensive therapy, impact on a patient’s threshold for the activation of right brain stress responses. The processing of previously repressed affects, separated from awareness by defences and symptoms, allows them to become regulated and adaptively integrated into the patient’s emotional life. A patient’s tolerance for potential flooding or ‘triggering’ increases, allowing them to increasingly hold on to any experience as it is happening. Without the maladaptive defences and symptoms that block full right hemisphere maturation and affect regulation the patient is able to experience an integrated sense of self across state that transitions allows for a continuity of inner experience.
Thus, psychoananalytic psychotherapy differs from most other therapies in aiming for deep-seated change in personality and emotional development. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy aims to help people with serious psychological disorders to understand and change complex, deep-seated and often unconsciously based emotional and relationship problems, thereby reducing symptoms and alleviating distress. The role of the psychoanalytic psychotherapist is not limited only to those with mental health problems. Many people who experience a loss of meaning in their lives or who are seeking a greater sense of fulfillment or self-awareness may be helped by psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
People reveal hidden things about themselves in all sorts of ways, inside and outside analysis. Examples are slips of the tongue, jokes and dreams. Dreaming is the way we think while we are asleep, and it is much less carefully censored than our waking thoughts. Our imagination has a freer reign during sleep, and dream ideas can be revealing and sometimes creative. Dreams can be straightforward, but they often need decoding to reveal the ideas and feelings being expressed, and they can often be useful in analysis.
Sometimes people seek help for specific reasons such as eating disorders, psycho-somatic conditions, obsessional behaviour, or phobic anxieties. At other times help is sought because of more general underlying feelings of depression or anxiety, difficulties in concentrating, dissatisfaction in work or inability to form satisfactory relationships. The therapy can help people with emotional and behavioural difficulties, which are evident at home or work, which can include personality problems, depression, learning difficulties, school phobias, eating or sleeping disorders.
Both therapist and patient usually sense and agree when it’s time to set an ending date and to work towards this. That’s not to say that it’s easy to stop seeing someone they have worked so closely with and grown attached to. But giving up and mourning the therapy itself is actually an important phase of the work.
Generally speaking psychoanalytic psychotherapy is best considered as a long-term treatment involving considerable commitment for both patient and therapist.
I am located at 7-9 Bardolph Street, Glen Iris Vic 3146 Mob: 0412 563 638 Fax: 03 9011 9656 E: vicki.odwyer@gmail.com
