psychotherapy

If you've ever been in a "talk therapy" (not behaviorally-focused), you've likely been in a form of psychodynamic therapy. Psychodynamic therapy is like peeling back the layers of an onion. It helps you explore the depths of your mind to understand why you think, feel, and behave the way you do. This approach involves uncovering the unconscious patterns and life experiences that shape your present life and mental health.

At its core, psychodynamic therapy understands that the unconscious mind plays a significant role in everyday life. People are complex, and the solutions aren't only about what’s seen on the surface—it’s more about learning and resolving deeper patterns of past relationships, childhood experiences, and hidden desires. A psychodynamic therapist will help you connect the dots between your past and present, giving insights into why you might struggle with specific issues. It also goes beyond only awareness and insight. A significant part of effective psychodynamic therapy also involves working through and processing the emotions that have been carried over time. When you've processed and worked through the carried emotions, they no longer hold power over you and your life.

How Psychodynamic Therapy Works

Beyond building a supportive foundation and a trusting relationship with your therapist, which is important in any therapy, in psychodynamic therapy (which is also known as psychoanalytic therapy) we will explore your deeper thoughts and feelings, which also includes relational and emotional patterns over the course of your life. Experiences such as dreams are also important in understanding your unconscious motivations and stored emotions that are having an affect on your present life as well. The outward and underlying conflicts that are getting in the way of your emotional health or your present life are worked through as we get to more deeply understand where they are stemming from.

Why Psychodynamic Therapy Stands Out From Other Therapies

Focus on the Unconscious

When you engage in psychodynamic therapy, you explore the depths of your unconscious mind. Unlike cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which focuses more on changing thought patterns and behaviors, psychodynamic therapy helps uncover the deeper underlying motivations that often keep people repeating the same unwanted patterns again in the present. As you peel back the onion, you gain more insight and are able to release the stored emotions as you go.

Emphasis on Past Experiences

In a psychodynamic therapy, your childhood experiences and past relationships are fully relevant in shaping your current behavior. How we are as adults stems from a younger age where we learn about the world through experiences, which shapes who we are in the present. It’s not about dwelling on the past, but understanding how your past influences your current relationship with the world (and other people), which all influences your mental and emotional health.

The Therapeutic Relationship

In psychodynamic therapy, your relationship with your therapist plays an important role. It’s not just about getting advice; it’s about creating a safe space to express yourself freely. This relationship often mirrors patterns in your other relationships, giving you valuable insights into your interpersonal dynamics. You are also able to work through negative patterns from your life that may start to show up in your therapy. It is actually quite common for patterns from your life to come into your therapy. People often think it means their therapy or therapist is bad when they see or feel something negative in their therapy. However, this is often a good thing as it means the issues that are plaguing you are showing up in a place where you and your therapist can give attention to it together.

What Psychodynamic Therapy Helps With

If you’re struggling with persistent emotional challenges, relationship issues, or simply seeking deeper self-understanding, psychodynamic therapy is a good option. It’s particularly helpful if you:

Find yourself repeating unhealthy patterns

Struggle with emotional regulation

Struggle with unresolved childhood or past experiences

Want to explore the roots of your thoughts and behaviors

Find yourself often ruminating or fantasizing about present issues or other points in your life

Psychodynamic therapy can be a helpful approach for people who are struggling with a variety of mental health issues, including:

Depression

Anxiety

Panic Attacks

Relationship issues

Trauma

Phobias

Other issues that have persistently been unresolved

The Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic "Talk Therapy" vs. CBT Debate

There has been a debate about whether psychodynamic therapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is "better". I have worked with both, and I can say that while CBT has its helpful points, CBT often is at its most helpful when it's used as a supplement to psychodynamic therapy. I've found over time that psychodynamic therapy works much better for longer-term success because of its depth, and going at your pace. CBT generally seems to have short-term success (as CBT is a shorter term therapy that doesn't get to the deeper core of issues). CBT usually works well to provide coping skills for symptom management for certain issues while doing the deeper psychodynamic work.

Something that people often don't realize is that psychodynamic and psychoanalytic therapy also addresses your behaviors. The difference is that CBT believes that changing behaviors resolves mental and emotional struggles (sort-of a 'fake it till you make it' approach), whereas psychodynamic therapy understands that it's not nearly this simple (it's often very hard to create longer-term changes when you're struggling emotionally on a deeper level).

The way I've always described the difference between CBT and psychodynamic therapy is that CBT is the bandaid over the wound, and psychodynamic therapy cleans out and heals the wound. When the wound isn't healed, however, eventually the bandaid isn't enough.

Finding Help

I always recommend to be sure your therapist has been trained post-graduate in a certified psychoanalytic institute if you're looking for psychodynamic therapy, or "talk therapy". There are many therapists who abuse the term "talk therapy" and don't have the appropriate training or experience to truly provide an effective depth therapy. It's okay to ask a therapist when searching what their background or training is in.

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If you are looking for a therapist, it's not always as simple as it seems to find good, seasoned, trained, and experienced therapists. The therapy field unfortunately in more recent years has become saturated with people who wish to be therapists, but who don't often wish to go through the training or time it takes to become a good therapist. It is unfortunate, because it is very hard for the general public to be able to discern between a well-trained experienced therapist, and someone who doesn't have the necessary training to appropriately do the work of providing therapy.

Here are some situations to be careful of:

Corporate "Therapy" -- Do your best to avoid the big corporations who advertise therapeutic conversation, no matter how little they charge. You'll recognize these by their plentiful social media ads and sometimes using known actors or athletes to advertise their corporation of online therapists. Articles have been published regarding these massive corporate groups of therapists, exposing the lack of ethics, sharing of client information, and not actually providing therapy at all in many cases. They provide someone to talk to, and the corporations want the "therapists" to respond according to their corporate business model -- NOT what makes the most sense for a healthy therapy model. If what you want is therapy, you most likely will not receive it in these settings, even if someone is assigned to communicate with you. (Search the internet for articles on these issues).

No Post-Graduate Credentials -- Believe it or not, graduate schools do not teach people how to be therapists/psychotherapists. Graduate schools teach the knowledge to start into the field of psychology, social work, school counseling, mental health counseling, etc. When I received my masters in social work, I thought that I must know enough to provide therapy, based on the field placements I had been doing in therapy and counseling at the time. However, I quickly realized that if I wanted to actually provide real therapy and offer effective interventions to treat complex emotional and psychological processes, post-graduate training wasn't just a good idea, it was really going to be essential. Being empathic, caring, and an attuned listener are necessary foundations for providing therapy -- however, these qualities don't make up for a lack of true education on practicing therapy. There is nothing in a graduate school curriculum that provides this type of education. Therefore, when searching for a therapist, if you want someone trained and experienced, ask them where they did their post-graduate psychotherapy training. For many, this will be at analytic institutes and will take several years of training. This is generally not something that can be accomplished in a weekend seminar or something of this variety. A word of caution that many, many therapists do not seek post-graduate training. This would undoubtedly impact the quality and potential of your therapy.

Group Practices -- While group practices in and of themselves aren't problematic, it's important if you want a seasoned and trained therapist that you verify who you're paired with in a group practice. Often, people will be referred to a group practice for either one of the therapists, or just because the referring source knows of the group. However, group practices often employ masters level therapists who have not completed their clinical licensing hours. Meaning, they are working under supervision of a clinical therapist, but don't yet have their own experience hours for their clinical licenses. If it is important to you to have a clinically licensed therapist (which is the level required for any therapist to be in private practice), then be sure you request this or verify this if you're going to see someone in a group practice.

"Life Coaches" (who don't also have therapy training) -- Life coaching for a number of reasons has always been a complicated field to understand, mainly because it is not regulated by anything. Anyone can call themselves a life coach, for any reason. You don't need a certificate or a degree for it. This has allowed a large number of people to attempt to mimic the work of therapy without having any background in therapy, or even in a related field to therapy. While many trained therapists will also offer life coaching in various areas of struggle (since this is related to work they are actually trained in), it is very different for a person with no training in therapy to try to offer counseling services or therapy-adjacent services. Always be sure to verify credentials. 

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Starting the conversation about your mental health is an important first step on the path of improvement. Let's take the first step together.

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Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychological treatment that has been demonstrated to be effective for a range of problems including depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use problems, marital problems, eating disorders, and severe mental illness.

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So, I made a post on here a while back about how my former psychiatrist was basically unresponsive, acted like I didn't need therapy (although I have CPTSD), and that I would need to send him multiple texts to get him to respond because I'm out of meds.

Well, now he's not even keeping our appointments and he didn't respond to my text on Saturday, which basically asked if we were still keeping our appointment for that day. I sent the text 10 minutes after our appointment time.

We were supposed to have an appointment at 1PM. He didn't respond and didn't give me a heads up. But at this point, I wasn't even surprised. This was after a whole month went by. Last appointment with him was back in July.

Some of you told me that I should get rid of him. Others said that I should be patient and more understanding.

Well, I gave him another chance and that was the last straw. Playing around with my mind is toying around with my life.

Unacceptable.

Found a new psych and she seems great. I'm really hoping she'll be reliable. She was very encouraging, uplifting, and kind.
And it wasn't until after my appointment with her that I realized that my former psych was none of that. He really was just there to dispense meds.

What I really like is that she told me I needed a therapist, which I already knew. I'll be calling the behavioral center tomorrow to set that up.

If this doesn't go well, then I made a list of backup plans. 📋🖊

Lesson learned: Read the signs, acknowledge the warnings, listen to your instincts, and never settle for less. 🤚🚫📈

#MentalHealth #Depression #MajorDepression #PTSD #CPTSD #Anxiety #Therapy #Psychotherapy