Psychodynamic Therapy
Exploring the past, to understand the present.
What is Psychodynamic Therapy?
Psychodynamic therapy is an evidence-based talk therapy that has its origins in Freudian psychoanalysis. This approach assumes that people’s current problems are a result of past experiences which become unresolved unconscious conflicts. Psychodynamic therapy aims to make people aware of these conflicts through self-reflection and looking at past relationships. Sessions can last from months to years.
Conditions Psychodynamic Therapy Can Help With
Psychodynamic therapy can be used as a method of counselling for a variety of conditions including:
Eating disorders
Unexplained physical pain
Personalty disorders
Sexual dysfunction
Techniques Used in Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic therapy uses a variety of techniques that have proven to be effective.
Exploring repressed emotions
Your counsellor helps you to identify unresolved feelings that you weren’t actively aware of. When certain negative feelings become too hard to deal with, we repress them in our unconscious mind.
Using psychodynamic therapy, the counsellor helps bring these repressed thoughts to light, so you can figure out the underlying causes behind your problems. It helps you become more self-aware.
Looking at defence mechanisms
Defence mechanisms are unconscious behaviours that we perform to avoid dealing with difficult feelings. While they’re helpful in the short term, they can eventually become extremely unhelpful and keep us from addressing the root problem.
Some examples of defence mechanisms include:
Projecting our feelings onto others
Rationalizing hurtful situations to make them bearable
Being in denial about something unpleasant
Avoiding difficult emotions by cancelling therapy sessions
Your counsellor will help you to identify these defence mechanisms and explore strategies to overcome them.
Identifying unhealthy patterns
We all follow certain patterns of thinking. Sometimes, these patterns can be unhealthy and lead us into cycles of unhelpful behaviour that may negatively affect us and the people around us.
Psychodynamic therapy helps us to understand why we behave the way we do. By exploring your present behaviour, you can gain a deeper understanding of past causes that have led to this behaviour.
Understanding relationships
Our patterns of thinking, communicating, and behaving greatly affect our relationships. Psychodynamic counsellors can help you understand the reasons you enact certain behaviours with others. This is done through a process known as transference. Transference occurs when you redirect your feelings about someone else onto the counsellor.
These feelings could be about any important person in your life, such as a partner, parent, sibling, or friend. Transference can help you become aware of unhealthy relationship dynamics, the reasons behind them, and how to work through them.
Exploring dreams and fantasies
Psychodynamic therapy looks at people’s dreams and fantasies as windows to their unconscious mind. When we try to avoid certain unpleasant emotions, our mind tucks them away in our unconscious,
These unconscious forces are then assumed to manifest in dreams and other fantasies. By exploring them, your counsellor can help you discover underlying meanings that you weren’t aware of.
Reach Out To Us
Located in the beautiful Orchard Treatment & Wellness Center at 4012 Perth Rd #107, Shakespeare Ontario, we are local to Stratford, Tavistock, New Hamburg, and the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Our clinicians also offer remote therapy across Ontario so that you can access the support you need - no matter where you are!
To get started you can fill out a contact form, call (226) 215-4244, or book an appointment online with one of our counsellors by clicking below.
We’re looking forward to supporting you!