Psychoanalysis

Most people think psychoanalysis is about sex, but it isn’t. Some people think psychoanalysis is dead, but it isn’t. Like most fields, it has grown and developed well beyond Freud’s discoveries and practices. It is a rich and powerful area of understanding and study about the human psyche, mind, and the greatly misunderstood unconscious. Many people have found the treatment modality of psychoanalysis to be life-changing.

Psychoanalysis as a treatment is a special kind of intensive talking therapy that is sometimes needed to make deep and lasting changes, especially when other shorter treatments haven’t worked well enough. Often struggles and symptoms are not the result of “chemical imbalances,” or genetic predispositions, rather they are the result of our assumptions, beliefs, unconscious conflicts, personality, and patterns of interacting, that are deep-seated and intransigent to logic and wishes to change. They often begin in childhood and adolescence, becoming more problematic and complex with each additional relationship, trauma, major life experience, and milestone. They are, therefore, deeply rooted and difficult to change.

In practical terms, this kind of therapy can help with a variety of issues: repetitive problematic patterns of behavior in personal or work relationships; chronic feelings of disconnection from family, friends, or colleagues; physical complaints that never seem to acquire a medical cause; or with personal losses and transitions that have not gone well. Other types of issues that may need psychoanalytic treatment include anxieties and depression that have not responded to medications and other therapies.

Psychoanalysis is a mode of psychotherapy that I am trained to do. If you are interested, please let me know so we can discuss your thoughts and questions about it.

For more information about psychoanalysis, I recommend exploring the American Psychoanalytic Association site.