Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a less intensive form of treatment, which is however based on the same principles as is psychoanalysis. The differences of psychoanalytic psychotherapy are often understood as a consequence of the fact that meetings are less frequent than they would be in psychoanalysis. This reduced frequency of meetings, which is usually once or twice a week, tends to create a clinical experience which can feel more relationally relaxed, while at the same time still has the ability to address deeper issues which can be hard to access in other non-analytic forms of treatment. But while the nature of the interaction in psychoanalytic psychotherapy may feel different from the unique intensity of psychoanalysis, the goals of both types of treatment are the same; greater self understanding leading to greater integration and freedom to create an authentic life for yourself.
In psychoanalytic psychotherapy, we work together to help you locate, address and work though issues which have held you back in life. These deep-seated obstacles are most often created by unconscious emotional conflicts which exist in one’s inner world. These conflicts can stem from early trauma, or from other less overtly disturbing, but still difficult to address experiences one faces as a child. These emotional conflicts generate resistances to growth through the use of various types of unconscious structures and defenses which hold people back from creating the very things they most want in life.