Psychodynamic Therapy

Psychodynamic Therapy is a form of in-depth talk therapy rooted in psychoanalytic theory, centered on the understanding that unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories significantly influence your current behavior and psychological distress. The fundamental principle is that bringing these unconscious elements into conscious awareness allows you to understand your deep-seated patterns and the historical roots of your difficulties, particularly those stemming from early childhood experiences.

While descended from traditional psychoanalysis, modern psychodynamic therapy is typically less intensive and more flexible, meeting you once or twice weekly in face-to-face sessions rather than requiring the couch and multiple sessions per week. The primary goals are self-understanding, insight into the origins of your problems, identifying maladaptive defense mechanisms, and resolving internal conflicts to achieve lasting changes in personality and emotional development.

Core Concepts

Unconscious Processes: Much of mental life operates outside conscious awareness. Patterns of choosing unsuitable partners, reacting intensely to minor situations, or feeling stuck despite wanting to change often have roots in unconscious conflicts.

Defense Mechanisms: Unconscious strategies you use to cope with anxiety and internal conflict—including intellectualization, projection, reaction formation, and others. Everyone uses defenses; problems arise when they become too rigid or extreme.

Transference: The therapeutic relationship mirrors how you relate to others in your life. How you relate to your therapist—seeking reassurance, being guarded, expecting criticism—often reflects broader relational patterns.

Early Relationship Patterns: How you were treated by caregivers shapes beliefs about yourself and expectations about relationships. These patterns, formed adaptively in response to early environments, can become problematic when they persist rigidly into adulthood.

You can apply psychodynamic insights by developing curiosity about your own patterns and their origins.

Notice Your Patterns

When you notice yourself repeatedly in similar situations—choosing similar partners, having conflicts with authorities, feeling certain ways in particular contexts—ask yourself: Where have I experienced this before? What might I be reenacting or attempting to resolve? This curiosity about patterns opens possibilities for understanding and change.

Recognize Defense Mechanisms

When you find yourself intellectualizing feelings, denying something that's probably true, projecting your own feelings onto others, or otherwise protecting yourself from uncomfortable awareness, simply notice the defense operating. Awareness of when and how you use defenses creates the possibility of choosing whether they're still serving you well.

Explore Connections

When you have a strong emotional reaction that seems disproportionate to the situation, ask yourself: What does this remind me of? When have I felt this way before? Who does this person remind me of? These questions help you recognize when old patterns are being activated, allowing you to respond to current reality rather than unconsciously reacting based on past experiences.

Notice Relationship Templates

How you relate to romantic partners, friends, bosses, therapists, and others often follows templates learned in early relationships. Do you tend to please others at your own expense? Keep people at distance? Seek constant reassurance? Recognizing these patterns across relationships helps you understand them as learned strategies rather than just how relationships are.