What is Psychodynamic Therapy?

1. Your therapy will be based on Freud’s theory (which has evolved over the past 100 years) of a conscious and an unconscious mind (your “psyche”) that are like conflicting forces (the “dynamic”).
2. Your problems result from how you were shaped by childhood experiences.
3. The therapist will guide your exploration of the full range of thoughts and emotions, including feelings that you may not initially be able to recognize or acknowledge (the unconscious).
4. The therapeutic relationship (your thoughts and feeling about the therapist) are used to help you understand problems in your important relationships.
5. Therapy is about “gaining insight” (a better understanding your inner life ) and “working through” (trying to become more aware of the unconscious influences on your experience and behaviour).